After the threat of tropical storm Harvey started to surface, the imminent weather has become the only thing people are talking about. As the days and weeks of chaos continue on, we hear news of casualties, damage, and even politics. But who is to blame? We have hurricanes and tropical storms in this area of the world before, but never of this size. Why was this time so different, and was climate change to blame?
According to an article by the Atlantic, climate change was not the main cause of this tragedy but it definitely contributed to it. Just like with many other severe and unusual weather cases, greenhouse gas emissions are "making a bad situation worse". By trapping heat and gas in our ozone, solar energy is trapped inside our layer. This is what causes, warmer water, melting icecaps, and drought.
The real culprit here is the warm waters. In the days before the storm, the ocean was between 2.7 and 7.2 degrees warmer than usual. This made is the warmest ocean surface in the world. This warmth was what caused such a size and elongated time period. The hurricane used the heat energy from the water to propel itself and to stay in the Houston area for so long.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/did-climate-change-intensify-hurricane-harvey/538158/
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