Hurricane Harvey has been in the news a lot recently and this is pretty much due to its catastrophic qualities that surpass even those of Hurricane Katrina's, some say. This is all for good reason, however, since the total estimated damage from Hurricane Harvey is around $190 billion US Dollars. Now, a lot of people are claiming that this hurricane is directly related to man-made climate change. This isn't necessarily true, since climate change only had a small role in the making of the hurricane.
We all know that humans have a huge carbon footprint that directly leads to the warming of the oceans, but we are not the main reason behind the hurricane. The only thing climate change has contributed to is the intensity of the storm, which, admittedly, is the worst part. This video by Vox is really good at explaining more about Hurricane Harvey and also hurricanes of the future.
Good job making the distinction between man being a direct cause of the hurricane and him being a small factor.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that climate changes isn't to blame in large part. Did you read anything about rising ocean temperatures? I challenge you to read more -- the intensity of storms seems to be very much related to climate change. Here's a passage from a recent NEWSWEEK article on the matter:
Delete"Hurricanes feed off warm water, and climate change will make the areas where hurricanes feed hotter. Warmer air can hold more water vapor, making it easier for a storm like Harvey to dump more rain.
Another key factor that makes hurricanes dangerous is storm surge, the huge flood of seawater a storm pushes in front of it as it approaches land. Here, too, there's a logical connection: Climate change causes rising sea levels, so it takes less storm surge to cause the same amount of flooding."
You can read the whole article, here: http://www.newsweek.com/harvey-irma-hurricane-season-climate-change-659844.
Either way, both Harvey, and Irma are kinda like a bit "OH, HI!" from the climate change conversation. Let's keep reading and thinking together, okay? :)