How Does El Niño Affect Local Economies?

One of the biggest tectonic events that has an effect on the earth climate is volcanic activity.

In the last century, there have been approximately 13 hurricanes to hit the United States’ landfall (Citation). Many of these hurricanes don't only have a social impact, but also have an economic impact on the United States. However, the question is how impactful does a natural disaster have to be to cripple the United States, or can it help improve the economy? One crucial factor in the economy is the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate is a common measurement for determining the health of an economy. Unemployment has a negative effect on the economy because it leads to higher payments from state and federal government for unemployment benefits, food assistance, and Medicaid. Not only is the government helping unemployed individuals

After Hurricane Katrina, ten months later, jobs plummeted to an average loss of 95,000. “During the month of November 2005, employment had dropped to 105,300 below the previous year’s figure.” (Dolfman pg. 7) Furthermore, Hurricane Karina in doubt did cause more damage to the economy than expected. The hurricane “affected 19% of U.S. oil production.” (Dolfman pg. 7) Hurricane Katrina completely destroyed 113 offshore oil and gas platforms, occurs damages to457 oil and gas pipelines, and spilled as much oil compared to the Exxon Valdez oil disaster. This devastating event “caused oil prices to increase $3 a barrel,” and gas prices sky-rocketed to $5 a gallon. (Dolfman pg. 7) Lastly, Hurricane Katrina’s impact struck Louisiana’s sugar industry, totaling an estimate of $500 million in “annual crop value.” (Amadeo)

The Earth has been experiencing a considerable amount of climate change for the last several decades. Natural factors that contribute to the climate system consist of: solar output, volcanic activity and earth’s orbit around the sun. The two factors relevant on timescales of contemporary climate exist in volcanic activity and changes in solar radiation. The earth’s energy balance primarily influences the amount of incoming energy from volcanic eruptions, which have a relatively short-term effect on climate. Changes in solar output have contributed greatly to climate trends over the past century. The effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been at least ten times that of changes in the Sun’s output and the ocean covers more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface, receiving twice the amount of earth’s radiation. Although the sun is the engine that drives all the weather, oceans and atmosphere control the sun 's energy along certain

According to this Chapter, the cause of these climate changes came from forcing. Forcing is any ongoing process or discrete event that alters the energy of the system. Examples of natural forcings include volcanic eruptions, periodic shifts in the Earths’s orbit and changes in the sun’s

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma could have a major negative impact on both Texas and Florida's economies and the United States' overall economy.

The intensity, frequency, and duration of North Atlantic hurricanes, as well as the frequency of category 4 and 5 hurricanes, have all increased since the early 1980s (Bell 2012). The increase in hurricanes can be linked to higher sea surface temperatures caused by multiple outside sources. Human induced emissions of heat-trapping gases and particulate pollution are two of the possible sources that are affecting the sea surface temperature. Humans are the main contributor contributing to climate change and global warming, but most seem not to care. Not only is the amount of hurricanes increasing, but heat waves are increasing and intensifying in some western parts of the country. Heat waves have become more frequent across The United States in recent decades. Western regions are setting records for numbers of heat waves and droughts in the 2000s. Data collected suggests that the droughts over the last decade in the West represent the driest conditions in the last 800 years (Vose 2005). With varying weather all over the country, the real estate market is beginning to be affected as well. Popular ski capitals will no longer have their icy slopes and eventually the popular beaches will be too hot to visit or will not have any beach left, causing drops in vacation rentals and permanent housing

By looking back at history, it is clear that the economy is an ever changing thing that is unpredictable in many ways. From the stock market crash in the 1920’s to the more recent housing market crash in the 2000’s one thing is for sure; many different factors affect the United States economy every day. In addition to man-made factors there are also other elements that cannot be controlled or even consistently predicted that impact the growth or decline of the economy overall. For example, natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and tsunamis not only cause immediate damage wherever they strike, but also have long term economic affects for years to come. One of the natural disasters that left the biggest impact on the economy was Hurricane

In the years ahead, climate change will have a significant impact on every aspect of the daily lives of all human beings -- possibly greater even than war. Shifting precipitation patterns and ocean currents could change where and how food crops grow. If icecaps melt and low-lying areas are flooded, as is predicted, entire populations could be forced to move to higher ground. The tsunami of 2004 and Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, provided vivid examples of what large-scale climactic catastrophes entail.

Throughout history climates have drastically changed. There have been shifts from warm climates to the Ice Ages (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009, p.204). Evidence suggests there have been at least a dozen abrupt climate changes throughout the history of the earth. There are a few suspected reasons for these past climate changes. One reason may be that asteroids hitting the earth and volcanic eruptions caused some of them. A further assumption is that 22-year solar magnetic cycles and 11-year sunspot cycles played a part in the changes. A further possibility is that a regular shifting in the angle of the moon orbiting earth causing changing tides and atmospheric circulation affects the global climate (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009,

Earth is the only planet known to support life, but has a dark side that is demonstrated every year. Whether by earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, or hurricanes, the Earth is an extremely active planet, and humans living upon it must heed the potential for danger. One of the worst of these disasters to occur came in the form of Hurricane Katrina during an 8 days span in August of 2005. Hurricane Katrina impacted the coast of Louisiana and changed the area immensely, not only at that time, but the changes can still be seen today, nearly a decade later.

Honduras is vulnerable to a range of climate disaster which includes hurricanes, flooding, tropical storms and rainfall triggered landslides. This is due to Honduras’ climate and position between Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. According to Germanwatch report, Honduras is on top of the list of countries affected by climate change from 1992 to 2011. During this nineteen year period, Honduras became victim to sixty catastrophic weather events which has resulted in an average of 329 deaths per year. For a country like Honduras where agriculture plays a significant role, food security is becoming a crucial problem. Intense drought during the summer of 2014 caused the harvest to drop by 80 percent. This as a result caused the price of maize and barley

There are many variables within the climate change equation that must be taken into account to determine what is truly causing the climate change. Yet, recently, it has been observed that in years following a volcanic eruption the global temperature has been a couple of degrees cooler, and there has been increased precipitation. "The amount and global extent of cooling depend on the force of the eruption, the amount of particular gases emitted, and, perhaps, on the location of the volcano with respect to the world's global atmospheric circulation patterns." (NASA Homepage) The argument that volcanic eruptions cause the climate change is as follows: volcanic eruptions eject sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, and the resulting stratospheric aerosols change the short and long wave radiation budget of the atmosphere. This causes a chain reaction in which the stratosphere cools off. (Welcome to MTU Geology Department) The diagrams below illustrate the many variables involved in a volcanic eruption.

How volcanoes affect people and environments? A volcano is a mountain or hill having a crater or vent through which lava, rock fragments, hot vapor, and gas are in. Volcanoes can change the weather. They can cause rain, thunder and lightning. Volcanoes can also have long-term effects on the climate, making the world cooler.

Climate change can affect negatively the economy of an entire nation in so many ways. Rising sea levels and warmer oceans are what makes storms more destructives. Which mean that the more destructive a storm is the most the government would have to spend money trying to fix the disasters that comes with it. When a strong hurricane make landfall, it destroyed everything that it on its way. It destroys houses, roads, bridges, railroad track, airports runways, power lines, dam, levees, and seawalls. All this cost money, and time that the government and the public could’ve avoid if they listen to what the experts said. One probe that one hurricane can affect the economy of a country is the latest hurricane that happened in Puerto Rico, Virgin Island, and Florida, which happens to be part of the United States. Hurricane Maria cause so many damage to the Island of Puerto Rico. A librarian at the university of Puerto Rico describes the condition of the island after it was hit saying 80 percent of the island was without power. Houses, bridges were destroyed, people don’t have enough food to eat, there is not enough drinking water. It’s not clear yet how much it would cost to rebuild the island but there’s been an estimated of 95 billion. This show that if the government priories climate change, things like this would happen less often.