INCREASING CLIMATE CHANGE
BRINGS FORTH RISING SEA LEVELS
By Fiona Zhuo
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Erratic weather patterns and colossal hurricanes have been brought forth by continuously increasing climate change. Over the past few months, Hurricane Henri and Ida have demonstrated the destructive effects of warming temperatures. As sea levels begin to rise and flooding becomes more frequent, this climate crisis will eventually leave New York to sink if nothing is done to break its momentum.
Emerging on August 16th, 2021 and lasting until August 24th, Hurricane Henri was the eighth hurricane of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. According to an article from USA Today titled, “Henri Leaves $12B in Damage in Northeast; Some Have Lost Everything” by John Bacon, “The storm had hovered over the Northeast, slamming some areas with up to 10 inches of rain. It left behind a wide swath of mud, debris and devastation. The total damage and economic loss from Henri was probably $8 billion to $12 billion…”
Merely two days later, a category four hurricane named Ida continued along with catastrophic damages. An article from CNBC titled “Hurricane Ida’s Damage Tally Could Top $95 Billion, Making it the 7th Costliest Hurricane Since 2000” by Pippa Stevens, “... The analytics company [CoreLogic] estimates that the impact across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama will total between $27 billion and $40 billion. For the Northeast, the company envisions flood damages totaling between $16 billion and $24 billion.”
Never had there ever been such heightened hurricane activity, or such severe hurricanes hitting New York. An article from The Washington Post titled “How Tropical Storms and Hurricanes Have Hit U.S. Shores With Unparalleled Frequency” by Jason Samenow, Kasha Patel, Hannah Dormido, and Laris Karklis states, “While the number of total storms per season does not appear to be increasing because of global warming, a greater percentage of storms are strengthening into powerful hurricanes… attributed to rising ocean temperatures, which fuel hurricanes. In a warmer climate, the atmosphere can hold more water vapor and thus produce more-extreme rainfall. Rising sea levels are also worsening storm surges, which can cause significant flooding and damage.” While climate change is not affecting the quantity of storms, it is swelling their intensities.
But how will this continue to affect us now? It is not often that a hurricane will hit New York, but climate change has begun to affect our weather patterns and our health. In an article from The Washington Post titled, “At Least 85 Percent of the World’s Population Has Been Affected by Human-induced Climate Change” by Annabelle Timsit and Sarah Kaplan, it reads, “... hundreds of people in the Pacific Northwest died after unprecedented heat baked the usually temperate region. More than 1 million people in Madagascar are at risk of starvation as a historic drought morphs into a climate-induced famine. Catastrophic flooding caused New Yorkers to drown in their own homes, while flash flooding has inundated refugee camps in South Sudan… called attention to the way rising temperatures have increased the risk of many health issues, including breathing problems, mental illness and insect-borne diseases.”
Bayside High School senior Michelle Shi says, “ I remember two years ago in October 2019; I was already wearing my winter jacket because it was cold. But this year, I'm changing between t-shirts, jackets, and everything in between. I also realize the steady increase in extreme weather alerts around my neighborhood. It feels like there's a big rainstorm coming every other month.”
Bayside High School junior Lily Zheng comments, “Simple actions such as properly recycling materials, reducing the amount of plastic waste they produce daily, or using public transportation rather than driving could minimize the problems caused by climate change… It’s obvious that such natural disasters will only become worse as climate change grows.”
While hurricanes may be classified as a random natural disaster, their growing magnitude suggests otherwise. Intensifying hurricanes are not just extreme weather occurrences, they are a warning for our future.