Hurricanes - Sydney Emuakhagbon
From before humans roamed the Earth, there has been a natural order and connection between the land and the bodies of water of Earth. Today, however, the land and waters of Earth seem to be in disorder because it seems as though one tragic natural phenomenon occurs after another. For example, recent news reports have been frequented with updates regarding Hurricane Dorian, which prompted me to think: why are hurricanes occurring so frequently these past few years? I also wondered why the severity of hurricanes have also increased and why the same places (such as Puerto Rico and the Bahamas) have been, and continue to be, hit by hurricanes.
Firstly, there are certain oceanic conditions that are necessary for a hurricane to form. For a hurricane to be created, the oceanic temperature must be warm (roughly 80 degrees), low air pressure, moist ocean air (elevated humidity) and tropical winds, all of which must occur near the equator. Hurricanes only form in the tropics, between the latitudes 8 degrees and 20 degrees. In addition, hurricanes typically form between June and November. Hurricanes begin as a tropical wave and as warm, moist air above the ocean rises while the air pressure remains low, cold air replaces it, producing strong winds. In addition to strong winds, heavy rain and thunderclouds are simultaneously formed, otherwise called a tropical disturbance. As the air pressure continues to drop and winds remain constant at a speed of at least 38 miles per hour, the tropical disturbance can now be called a tropical depression. Once these winds reach 30 to 73 miles per hour, the oceanic disturbance is now upgraded to the title of a tropical storm. At this stage, the tropical storm will receive a name Lastly, a tropical storm becomes a hurricane once the winds rise above 73 miles per hour. After the hurricane touches land, it begins to "die out" since it is no longer fueled by warm ocean water.
Described in such a way, hurricanes are typically identified as natural weapons of obliteration. Despite the level of destruction it causes, hurricanes are natural occurrences that also bring benefits. While the hurricane moves across the water's surface, patches of bacteria can be broken up, preventing a toxic buildup of such bacteria. Additionally, hurricanes prevent barrier islands from shrinking and sinking into the ocean by replenishing them via the sand, nutrients and sediment that has been picked up. On land, hurricanes have the ability to bring needed rainfall to places that are water deficient. As hurricanes continue to move inland, whatever sand, nutrients and sediment that was not dropped off at the barrier islands are deposited onto land, replenishing inland habitats. These nutrients aid in replenishing the plant life of the habitat. Most importantly, hurricanes aid in regulating global temperatures. As hurricanes form and move away from the equator, they also take the warm water away, leaving behind cool ocean water. Without hurricanes, the equator would be much warmer and the poles would be much cooler.
Early in the article, I mentioned my curiosity with the increase in the development of hurricanes in recent years. The increase in hurricanes can be partially attributed to global warming. I couldn't help but connect the case to last week's article, which also mentioned the contribution of increased carbon emissions to the atmosphere and its effects on our oceans. Warmer atmospheric temperatures correlate to warmer oceanic temperatures and an increase in humidity, so hurricanes are easily formed. While the hurricanes of today and the past form in the same fashion, recent changes to our climate change the severity and frequency of these intense tropical storms. What other unprecedented repercussions are a result of climate change, not just in the ocean but on land? Besides human destruction, do you guys think that an increase in hurricanes is a positive or negative repercussion of climate change?
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20 comments:
Climate change can cause many repercussions on land. For example, extreme weather increases the chance and rate of famine. As certain plants receive less water, they begin to die out which in turn causes certain meats to lack as much protein and fat that would feed more people. Furthermore, there may be an increase in certain diseases caused by the extreme heat, the change in the water quality, and changes in vector ecology. This increase in diseases may even result in social instability in some countries also. On the topic of hurricanes, I believe that an increase in hurricanes is a negative repercussion of climate change. Hurricanes have the ability to destroy everything a person owns within hours and with an increase in severity of hurricanes due to climate change, hurricanes will cause even more damage upon society although they have certain positive impacts.
This is so interesting! Everyone focuses on the negative human impacts of a hurricane but fail to notice the benefits hurricanes provide to the environmental. However, with Hurricane Dorian currently impacting the U.S, we do see significant negative impacts. Hurricanes cause destruction of land and property, as well deaths. They cost billions of dollars in damage, and need a large budget to rebuild. Some places affected by hurricanes never recover, showing the huge impact hurricanes have and the fact that climate change seems to increasing hurricanes shows that the impacts of global warming and climate change seem to be happening now, meaning that we have little to no time left to fix it.
I have never thought of a hurricane having benefits and I am surprised to hear that there are so many! The increase in hurricanes could be seen more negative because of global warming. A repercussion of global warming is a rise in sea levels. This comes from the melting of the glaciers, which can cause habitat loss and will eventually lead to floods (affects us more directly). There are many other effects due to the impacts of global warming. As for the hurricanes, they will become stronger as our earth continues to increase in temperature. This means that hurricanes will have more negative effects on society rather than positive.
Before I read this article, I did not realize that hurricanes actually could benefit the environment because so much of the news on hurricanes list their disastrous effects. I think the negative effects of hurricanes increasing in number due to more greenhouse gas emissions outweighs the positive effects. Although hurricanes benefit the environment, too many hurricanes do more harm then good. Thus, we must find ways to decrease our greenhouse gas emissions in order to stop the increase of number and severity of hurricanes.
Wow this blog was very fascinating because your blog had answered some questions that I too have been wondering about. It is no secret that hurricanes have been occurring more than usual, and I find it interesting that it is partially caused by global warming which is a prominent issue that is very relevant in current news. I also liked that you went into detail about how a hurricane becomes a hurricane because many of us all over the world don’t really know how this natural disaster really occurs. I feel like we can make a change and stop these hurricanes from occurring so frequently by decreasing out global warming by decreasing carbon emissions.
Hurricanes themselves are naturally-occurring, so their mere existence is not a terrible thing because it is what the Earth does naturally. However, you pointed out that the frequency and intensity of hurricanes have been increasing in recent years due to anthropogenic climate change leading to more favorable hurricane breeding grounds. Since the high numbers and increasing damages are not typical for a naturally-occurring hurricane, I must believe that it also cannot be good for the environment. Displacement is happening far too rapidly and frequently as well, beyond the point of helpfulness. The only good I can predict may come of it is that humans will move away from coastal regions, which will decrease the extent to which oceans are damaged by people.
I really appreciated the way your blog talked about some of the positive aspects of hurricanes, which I had never considered before. On the other end, as was stated, the severity of these storms will only increase due to global climate change. However, in a sort of Macabre way, these mega storms might be just the things to help inspire people to action. The complaint about climate inaction is often that climate change is a slow moving problem that people can't see on a daily basis, but if the massive destruction, misery, and forcefulness of a hurricane is rightly conflated with climate change, everyday people may be more inclined to advocate to prevent climate change. In a sense, the hurricanes, although destructive, serve as both a force and a symbol for the worsening and warming climate. Hurricanes would have one more positive effect, in that they would powerfully illustrate the consequences of inaction.
Cara Kelly
I've honestly never considered that hurricanes can be helpful to the environment. I found that very interesting. Since this fact was introduced, I believe that an occasional hurricane is important, but climate change is causing more hurricanes than necessary, leading them to do more harm than good.
I have always thought that hurricanes was just another natural disaster that caused chaos to many people and species, but this blog proved my theory wrong. It seems that hurricanes can help regulate and control many things such as climate, temperature, and ecosystems all around the equator. Although, there seems to be a large increase in hurricanes which means that the environment can not take so much at one time. This should be an inspiration to many people of the sudden increase in the amounts of hurricanes each year around the equator, but an occasional hurricane should not be no harm.
While the blog does effectively establish hurricanes as a potentially positive occurrence, I would personally deem the increasing frequency of hurricanes in recent years as a result of climate change as a glaring negative in regards to the lives of humans and what we as people are doing about it. Once again, I am not that denying that hurricanes do yield undeniable benefits, however the rate at which they are hitting certain regions in the U.S. is severely bad for both the economy and the lives of people affected by these hurricanes. Many who live in an area that is hit are left homeless with only a few belongings to their name due to the destruction caused by the hurricane. Natural disasters are supposed to be seldom, and the rate at which they are occuring now is clearly something that our environment is not ready for.
Hurricanes have become such a common thing in our world that we tend to not give much care when we hear another one is forming. When Harvey hit in our home state, when finally realized as Texans the true damage they can bring. Billions of dollars in damages and millions of homes lost fame with the storm. Although these natural disasters are horrific, this blog points out some interesting positive effects they can bring. Though we can’t deny hurricanes are very dangerous, it’s also nice to know that they’re not all bad.
I was truly fascinated with your blog. I didn’t expect hurricanes to even have a single advantage but they have many. It is also very impressive that you made your blog about a current natural disaster in Hurricane Dorian. To answer your question at the end, I would say no, but having no hurricanes would be a bad thing. As global warming increases due to carbon emissions and other factors, more and more hurricanes would form, resulting in many more homes destroyed. I believe this would be too many hurricanes forming but I do believe that having a hurricane once in a while is necessary for the points you listed in your post. If humans could lower carbon emissions, resulting in a decrease in global warming would be great and lower the chances of hurricanes. In conclusion, hurricanes are clearly necessary for certain places but there is no upside to having a hurricane every year.
It's interesting to think about hurricanes from a positive standpoint rather than the typical negative view. Hurricanes are a natural phenomenon, but clearly humans have exacerbated the frequency at which hurricanes occur. This is probably why we view hurricanes as a bad thing, since they occur so often now due to human actions. Clearly, hurricanes are not good when they occur frequently, but every once in a while, they are beneficial.
This article is very interesting because I never knew that hurricanes were somewhat beneficial. I always thought they just destroy infrastructure, but it turns out they are much more than that. I think that hurricanes will occur no matter what and there’s nothing we can do to stop them, but global warming had made the hurricanes more severe. If it weren’t for global warming, we wouldn't have had the number of category 5 hurricanes that we had, instead, they would have been much milder. So, we should focus on reducing global warming as much as possible so that the hurricanes in the future wont be as deadly.
I found this post so interesting, especially since you considered not only the negative impacts of hurricanes, but the positive ones too. Having lived on the east coast and experienced numerous hurricanes, I never really stopped to consider the good about hurricanes. Concerning your last question, therefore, I suppose hurricanes are neither an entirely positive nor negative consequence of climate change. After all, even if we neglect to address human devastation caused by such storms, a number of land animals face high death tolls and habitat loss as well. Furthermore, some plant species can’t survive with the massive amounts of water brought by such storms and drown. However, as you mentioned, hurricanes do help the environment in their own ways such as through the replenishment of nutrients in mainland soil. That being said, regardless of their benefits, the fact that our carbon emissions are messing with the frequency of hurricanes must serve as a reminder to humans that we need to change our ways before we cause even worse repercussions.
Wow, it’s really interesting that hurricanes actually help the environment! Although hurricanes provide benefits, they cause more damage to the world. Since the rate of hurricanes are increasing in a large amount, we need to find a way to reduce hurricanes to protect people and other living organisms.
I love that you included how hurricanes are formed. By doing so this gives an insight on how humans are possibly creating more severe hurricanes. It was also interesting to see how hurricanes can benefit the environment. Overall, I loved this article because it was so informative!
Your description of the formation of hurricanes was outstanding and it was a very good read. Its a good read because it gave me a new perspective on hurricanes and natural disasters. Hurricanes are becoming a problem because of the massive increase in the number of hurricanes but they do bring value and that is very interesting.
This blog was so good and organized and so well written!! My favorite part was definitely how you explained how hurricanes were formed!
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