Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  So I did my project on the correlation between climate

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  change and extreme weather.

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  A little bit of background changes in climate include carbon

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  dioxide emissions from fossil fuels being at an all time

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  high as well as global temperature and sea levels are

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  at the highest they've ever been in history.

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  So in this chart, you can see, um, fossil carbon

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  dioxide emissions from around the world between the years of

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  1970 and 2018.

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  And as you can see, China is by far the

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  worst out of all these countries with their emissions.

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  They have literally skyrocketed in the last decade.

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  So the first storm we look at hurricanes, greenhouse gas

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  emissions affect the temperature of the water and the amount

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  of heat energy in that water and create higher category

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  storms. So recently, there's been a lot of Category four

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  and five hurricanes that have caused a lot more damage

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  than in the past because of climate change.

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  One example we can look at is Hurricane Maria.

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  That happened in Puerto Rico.

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  Um, this image shows you the cyclone patterns of a

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  hurricane and how it's right off the land.

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  It was a storm in 2017 in Puerto Rico, and

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  it's the deadliest US based natural disaster 100 years.

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  It caused $90 billion in damage killed almost 3000 people.

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  And Hurricane Maria actually caused a big migration of people

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  to move over to the states to get away from

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  all of the damage and destruction of the country.

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  Um and also people who did stay in Puerto Rico

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  experienced power for its experienced the loss of power.

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  Sorry for over a year, the next storm we look

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  at our wildfires, um, increasing he changing precipitation patterns, and

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  chefs and plant communities all increase the likelihood that fires

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  will start more often and burn more intensely and widely

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  than they have in the past.

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  Okay, this chart shows you buy acres how much land

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  wildfires have burned in the US between the years of

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  1960 and 2019.

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  And as you can see why these statistics, it's gone

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  up a very high amount, especially if you look at

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  the decade of 1990 to 2010 and 2019.

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  It's doubled.

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  The example we look at here is the Australian wildfires.

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  They started in 2018 and ended in 2019.

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  Um, 46 million acres of land were scorched across the

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  country. 3,000,003 billion animals were impacted.

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  Dozens of people lost their lives and hundreds lost their

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  homes. And for these poor little animals of koalas, kangaroos

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  so many of them were killed and so many of

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  them lost their homes because they lived in, you know,

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  the greenery, the forests, the next storm.

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  We look at our typhoons.

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  Our current Serie for typhoons are very dependent on sea

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  surface temperature.

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  Climate change leads to tropical cyclones with higher rainfall, greater

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  intensity and greater proportion of high intensity.

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  So as with the hurricanes, we see a lot of

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  Category four and five typhoons that caused a lot of

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  a lot more damage than they have in the past

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  because of climate change.

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  So with this chart, you see the category five tropical

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  cyclones between 1990 2019 and you can see that fluctuated

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  a little bit.

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  But they're starting toe generally rise over the past 10

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  years. Okay, Typhoon goony Typhoon Goni happened in the Philippines.

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  Um is the strongest storm of anywhere in the world

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  in the year of 2020 and it affected two million

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  people in eight of the country, 17 regions.

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  And you can see why this picture how much damage

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  it caused in just one, you know, small little area

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  of the country.

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  Imagine how the like the entire affected area looked.

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  Okay. The last storm that we look at our droughts,

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  warming temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, greenhouse gas emissions.

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  Um, they all again affect, um, the occurrence of droughts.

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  Like with the other storms.

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  This chart shows you, um, as of January 1st 2019,

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  the drought monitor of the United States.

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  And as you can see, uh, the West is very

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  much impacted more than other parts of the country.

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  Uh, the darker the color, the worst off they are

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  with droughts.

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  So you can see how the American West is really

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  affected and, you know, spots like Florida and Texas like

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  the dryer areas.

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  Um, and this just shows you a picture of the

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  American West is currently in the midst of a mega

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  drought, their ranks amongst the worst in the past 1200

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  years. And this was a body of water that, you

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  know, dried up.

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  It's just a photo of that.

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  In conclusion, um, climate change is largely impacted by human

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  activity US on greenhouse gas emissions that come from humans.

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  Um, natural disasters are largely impacted by climate change, and

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  therefore humans need to take climate change more seriously and

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  plan to reverse the effects and slow these disasters from

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  recurring. Some ways that climate change can be helped.

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  You can donate.

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  Ah, lot of organizations are doing research, um, on how

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  to slow climate change, so having money is very helpful

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  for them.

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  Um, education is very important.

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  If people don't know about the problem, it's very hard

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  for them to solve the problem.

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  So it's very important for people to be educated about

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  the issue.

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  Um, cleaning power plants.

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  Power plants are a big source of emissions, so it's

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  very helpful for them to be clean and get involved

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  in community action.

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  It takes a lot of people that make such a

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  big change, so people need to be unified and get

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  involved in the community and see what your community is

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  doing. Thio slow the effects of climate change.

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  Um, controlled methane leaks.

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  Uh, companies can, you know, make sure that they have,

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  um yeah, you know, protocols in place to make sure

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  that methane is not leaked into the atmosphere.

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  Uh, that goes along with efficiency standards of companies making

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  sure that you are using procedures that are best for

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  the environment.

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  Um, and lastly, greener farming.

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  Um, there's a lot of different ways to make sure

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  that if you are farming that you're not harming the

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  environment. And yep, that's pretty much it.

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  Thank you for listening.