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september Thematic Report: Extreme weather

by Sandhya Adhikari | 14-10-2022 10:50


It is believed that the climate has been influenced by anthropogenic activities for centuries and now we can face the results of this effect on our planet. The question may arise: what is man's role in alarming climate change or extreme weather conditions? 

The Climate Hubs of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) described it as ¡°occurrences of unusually severe weather or climate conditions that can cause devastating impacts on communities and agricultural and natural ecosystems¡±. In other words, it's not just bad weather, it's extremely bad weather. The main types of extreme weather are waves of heat and cold, heavy rains and snowfalls or no precipitation for a long time, various types of storms, tropical cyclones (hurricanes and typhoons), and some others. All of these types of extreme weather are responsible for wildfires, droughts, excessive glaciation, floods and mountain avalanches, and other natural disasters. Extreme weather simultaneously affects humans, plants, and animals, as well as the entire biological system of the planet. Research reveals that the amount of extreme weather events in the past 50 years has enormously increased. One of the main reasons for that is human activities: the climate is changing and it is man's fault. Here are some examples:

The NCA (National Climate Assessment) of the US report made it clear that evidence of climate change appears in every region and impacts are visible in every state. Some particular types of extreme weather events are increasing, ice is melting on land and sea, and sea level is rising.
The climate scientists from Cornell University, US, just stated, that 99.9% of studies also confirm that humans are to blame for climate change, having analyzed more than 88.1 thousand studies on climate change conducted in 2012–2020.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also came to that conclusion. They released their report on August 9, 2021, where they confirmed that human activity causes climate change and thus intensifies the extremes. The situation will get even worse in the coming decades, so it¡¯s time to take action against the climate urgency. The IPCC report shows that human actions still can determine the future course of climate. Panmao Zhai, IPCC Working Group I Co-Chair, explained the ways we can stabilize the climate: ¡°Stabilizing the climate will require strong, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and reaching net-zero CO2 emissions. Limiting other greenhouse gases and air pollutants, especially methane, could have benefits both for health and the climate¡±.

As more research is done in this area, scientists have begun to investigate the connection between climate change and extreme weather events and what future impacts may arise due to the human activities on the climate and due to extreme weather Much of this work is done through climate modeling. Climate models provide important predictions about the future characteristics of the atmosphere, oceans, and Earth using data collected in the modern day. However, while climate models are vital for studying more complex processes such as climate change or ocean acidification, they are still only approximations. Moreover, weather events are complex and cannot be tied to a singular cause—there are often many atmospheric variables such as temperature, pressure, or moisture to note on top of any influences from climate change or natural variability.