Why has the weather gone cuckoo by Anthony R. Wood
May 23, 2011
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/122431754.html
As many have noticed the weather has been acting very strange lately. There's been a flood around the Mississippi River, and a record number of tornadoes, including one in Northeast Philly. Not surprisingly, some people think global warming is involved. Various studies are showing that the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is increasing. In fact The World Meteorological Organization reported (2000-2009) to be the wettest decade on record dating since 1850. Also the twisters were fueled by vapor-rich water off an abnormally warm Gulf of Mexico. This doesn't automatically make it global warming, however. While precipitation has been increasing in the Northern Hemisphere, in other places, such Africa, it has actually been decreasing. Many other factors are being taken into account, such as air pressure (though some things surprised them, as no huge changes were shown to have taken place in key air circulation patterns that govern the globe's weather).
Once again people are blaming global warming. I do think so myself, but I don't think its the whole problem. I think we might be going through another pattern, though how act still affects the weather. I think we can all see that the weather has been acting up, I mean we had a tornado warning at school. Getting a tornado where we live, that's just unheard of. People have to stop contributing to the effects of global climate change. While we're not fully responsible, we could at least do our part not let it get any worse.
1. Do you find global warming to blame for the odd weather?
2. Were you scared when we got the tornado warning?
3. How has the weather affected your recent life?
Reflection
ReplyDeleteI agree that there may be a chance that global warming/climate change isn't related to these freak accidents, there's always the remote possibility of these events just being flukes, rare, once-in-a-lifetime events. However, I get the feeling that we are in some way contributing to this. The water vapor is a clear sign (higher temperatures = more surface water evaporation = more humidity) that something is changing in our planet, and it seems to correspond to the effects of greenhouse gas emissions.
Responses
1) I think that we need a bit more studying, but if the weather continues like this, I'd say climate change is a very likely scenario.
2) Not really; I knew the probability of the tornado hitting our school was extremely low. The campus is on a hillside, and tornados like flat ground.
3) I can't find out anything about the outside world because the news is all focusing on the weather. I wish we'd hear more about Libya. In a more direct way, the weather has hardened my resolve that we need to do something about greenhouse gases.
Opinion/Reflection
ReplyDeleteI personally agree with what Ryan said. While global warming is a significant cause of the weird weather lately, it’s not the only factor. There has to be something else that is acting alongside global warming and contributing to the recent wacky weather conditions.
I think it’s bad that people are blaming global warming. Even though it may be part of the problem, it isn’t the only thing that causes it, so people need to stop making excuses and start trying to fix the dilema. In fact, I have a feeling that it is people who are the main cause of this weird weather because we contribute to global warming. Coal is burned every day like it won’t ever run out, and factories often produce a lot of smoke made of greenhouse gases. While there are alternatives now, people aren’t switching over as quickly as they should. If green energy sources were the only source for energy used, then global warming might not increase as much. Humans aren’t the only cause of global climate change (that’s why global warming would still increase), but we contribute to part of it. And even though it’s only a part, if we can change our ways and contribute less to global warming, then the weather won’t be acting up as much. So the real question here is, why won’t people change their ways?
I’m annoyed that a lot of people think the weird weather conditions lately are no big deal. A lot of disasters, for instance the record number of tornadoes and the Mississippi River Flood, hurt many people. It just doesn’t make sense if you think about it. People are hurting themselves by hurting the environment and contributing to global warming. I think everyone needs to step up and start going green, or at least help the environment in some way so that less pollution and green house gases are released into the atmosphere.
It’s terrible that the weather is acting up, but in a way, I kind of think people deserve it. If we would’ve been more careful with how much pollution we release, then we wouldn’t contribute to global warming as much and wouldn’t find ourselves in this predicament. Even now that something like this has happened, people are continuing to be reckless and careless. The weather is only going to keep hurting people, so I don’t see why we are so stubborn to change our ways. Yes it may be hard, but it would pay off in the long run if it could keep more people alive and the environment cleaner. It’s extremely frustrating.
Finally, I feel bad for the people who have gone green and are doing everything they can for the environment. The weather doesn’t know who is helping the environment though and who isn’t, so if a tornado hits, it hurts everyone, not just the people who are harming the earth. Simply put, that’s not fair.
This relates to class because we learned about the Donora Smog incident, which combined a natural weather occurrence (a temperature inversion) with pollution to produce the worst air pollution incident ever. In addition, we had a tornado warning in our area about a week ago. As far as I’m aware, there has never been a tornado warning during my lifetime. This new wacky weather is scary - it may cause disasters that have never affected areas like ours before to occur more frequently. I know I speak for most people when I say that I would never want something like that.
Answer the Questions
ReplyDelete1. Yes, I do blame global warming for the odd weather, but I don’t think it’s just global warming. Like I previously stated, I feel that there has to be something else along with global warming that is contributing to the wacky weather conditions.
2. Yes, I was scared when we got the tornado warning because nothing like that has ever happened in Horsham. And even more than that, I had no clue a tornado was coming in the first place, so I had extreme shock in addition to fear.
3. The weather hasn’t really affected my recent life, because other than a lot of rain and the tornado warning, nothing much has happened in Horsham. For this I am glad, though.
Ask More Questions
1. Do you think a tornado will actually hit Horsham in the near future?
2. Do you think there are any factors other than global warming that contribute to the odd weather? If so, what?
3. What should people do to try and stop these new weather conditions?
4. Are people jumping to conclusions if they say that the wacky weather is all global warming’s fault?
5. Why do you think precipitation increased in the Northern Hemisphere but not in Africa?
6. What places around the world are being affected the most by this new odd weather?
Add a graphic
http://hallofrecord.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html
About a quarter of the way down the page there is a map of the US that shows a really odd weather pattern-temperatures between 18 and 27 degrees in PA and temperatures around 75-84 in California.
Global climate change. "Global warming" is a misnomer, because only certain part of the world are getting warmer (some are getting colder), and temperature changes are only part of the effects.
ReplyDeleteI think it is lazy to attribute all the world's weird weather phenomena to global "warming" (I'm sorry, but come on, we learned this in class several times!). While global climate change is certainly wreaking havoc, that does not mean that all havoc is being wreaked by it. For example, the current crisis with the Mississippi is a regular, recurring problem. Every so often (last in the mid-nineteenth century, I believe), the Mississippi decides that its current path is too boring and shifts over a bit. According to Wikipedia, "the Mississippi River has shifted and changed constantly since [its] creation". So that particular issue was not caused by global climate change. Although it was exasperated by human activity, that's a rather different blog post.
Some of the recent weather mentioned in your blog post is actually caused by climate change, and those bits do really worry me. Until recently, tornados never really seemed real to me. They were always just something that those silly Midwesterners had to deal with, and for me, they never seemed completely "real". We all had a good laugh during the tornado warning (or my class did, at least), but it does seem somewhat scary that there are tornadoes in our area.
1) Most, but not all, of the weather is a product of global climate change, yes. I don't think there is any doubt about that at this point. I think the people that continue to deny its existence need a reality check.
2) No, I spent the whole time joking about it. It still didn't seem quite "real," so to speak. It really just seemed like break from class time, not preparations for a serious threat of some sort. I think it's because they didn't make us put our heads between our knees, that always makes things more serious. Although, like how they used to advise victims of an impending nuclear strike drills to take similar actions, one has to wonder how much that actually helps and how much it is just a mental tool.
3) I like the rain. The rain is nice. Not too big an effect really. At most it gave me a slight mood boost.
3)