Over the last few years, news outlets and social media have blamed climate change for every instance of unusual, or outright extreme, weather. Despite American political squabbling, the realities of climate change, particularly its effects on severe weather events, are consequential for human lives, especially those of color. Although most Americans recognize the growing prevalence of dangerous weather patterns, do most of us really know how climate change affects weather?

So, what exactly is climate change?

Most people familiar with early 2000s news cycles remember that what we frequently call “climate change” was once exclusively termed “global warming.” This popular terminology change, at least in America, was mostly a political decision. The second Bush Administration favored “climate change” instead of “global warming” because there was a fear that “global warming” was scarier to the general public than “climate change.” Although most experts have replaced “global warming” with “climate change,” the two terms aren’t perfectly interchangeable.

Global warming is quite literally the long-term warming of the planet. Trends up and down in the Earth’s average temperature are normal, but anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming is different in that it is caused and exacerbated by carbon emissions from fossil fuel use. Carbon emissions from fossil fuels heat the Earth by triggering the Greenhouse Effect. Greenhouse gases (GHG), like carbon dioxide, trap the Sun’s heat, keeping the Earth warm. You can think of the Greenhouse Effect like a trapdoor: The Sun’s energy falls in and can’t get back out. The Greenhouse Effect occurs under normal conditions, and without it, certain places would freeze when the sunsets. We’re currently experiencing the Greenhouse Effect acting excessively because human activities are producing more than sustainable levels of GHG, locking in an unmanageable amount of the Sun’s heat. 

When experts discuss anthropogenic global warming, they’re referring to the sharp global temperature increase (about one degree Celsius) we’ve seen over the past century. One degree Celsius (about two degrees Fahrenheit) may seem like an imperceptible temperature increase, but it can lead to consequential changes in global climate (remember that at 33° F, water is liquid, but at 31° F, it’s ice). It’s these drastic climate shifts that NASA and other science agencies refer to as climate change. Radical variations in global climate can intensify and multiply extreme weather events, like hurricanes, and exacerbate more prolonged climatological events, like droughts.

Ok, but how does global warming cause severe weather?

Two years ago, Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston in ways reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina’s 2005 destruction of New Orleans. Two months later, Puerto Rico was ravaged by Hurricane Maria and has yet to adequately recover. In many ways, these devastatingly frequent hurricanes have become the most prominent feature of a changing climate.

Warming ocean waters are making hurricanes more dangerous for numerous reasons. One such reason is that global warming is quickening a rise in sea level. As ocean waters get warmer, they also expand in volume (similar to bread baking in an oven), consequently rising sea levels. Higher sea levels make hurricanes more dangerous because they promote more intense storm surges, the atypical rise in water level preceding landfall of a hurricane. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) considers storm surges “the greatest threat to life and property from a hurricane” and highlights the overwhelming storm surge in 2005 as one of the major contributors to the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Rising sea levels make storm surges more threatening by giving them a higher starting point and a greater potential to move more water.

Beyond the capability of moving more water, global warming is also causing hurricanes to produce more water. As the air temperatures increase, so does the atmosphere’s ability to hold water. A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that “the water-holding capacity of the atmosphere increases by about 7% for every 1°C rise in temperature.” In context, if the average global temperature were to rise half a degree Celsius from 2017 levels, it would have allowed Hurricane Maria to drench San Juan with an extra 900 million gallons of rainfall. That’s equivalent to intensifying the hurricane with almost 1,400 Olympic-size swimming pools of extra water. This correlation between global temperature and precipitation has climate scientists anticipating precipitation events, like Hurricane Harvey, every sixteen years.

Magnified hurricanes may be one of the more destructive features of a changing climate, but historic heatwaves are also becoming more frequent. Last week, record heat waves struck Western Europe, causing many cities to record their highest temperatures ever. To most people, heatwaves and global warming appear clearly connected, but elevated global temperatures don’t immediately equal high regional temperatures. Heatwaves born of anthropogenic global warming often depend on how plants in the region adjust to rising temperatures. High global air temperatures can cause water to evaporate from soils. Studies have shown that, in these conditions, plants hold onto as much water as they already have, preventing water from evaporating into the atmosphere and cooling it down. This scenario causes heat waves to persist and strengthen. The IPCC reports that interactions like these not only increase the likelihood of very hot days but also progressively decreases the probability of very cold ones.

This is awful! Are we doing anything about it?

The short answer to this question is “yes and no.” Government-led resilience efforts, particularly in Black communities, do exist, but they’re often reactive, not proactive. In the years after Katrina, New Orleans received roughly $20 billion in federal, state and local funding to fortify the city’s storm defenses. Many of the necessary fortifications were to levees and floodwalls facing the Gulf of Mexico, but Tropical Storm Barry, which made landfall two and a half weeks ago, struck while the Mississippi River was in a flood stage.

“This is the first time in history a hurricane will strike Louisiana while the Mississippi River is in flood stage,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards told the New York Times. Although New Orleans was spared major damage, the upgraded storm reinforcements for the city completely ignored the increasing probability that rising temperatures could flood the Mississippi River during hurricane season.

Governmental agencies in the north also rely on reactionary planning methods. Following Superstorm Sandy, New York State allocated over $700 million toward storm-related recovery and resilience plans, $11.9 million of which went to Canarsie, Brooklyn. While this money has been utilized in protecting the predominantly Black neighborhood from future storm-related damages, none of the funding or planning was directed toward extreme heat preparedness. Last week, a heatwave struck New York City, causing a blackout throughout many parts of Brooklyn, including Canarsie. Con Edison, the city’s electricity provider, lacked an extreme heat contingency plan, forcing Governor Andrew Cuomo to distribute emergency generators throughout Brooklyn. The situation in Canarsie was so dire that Mayor Bill DeBlasio had to deploy a city cooling bus to accommodate the temperature regulation needs of residents of an adult care facility.

Lack of climate foresight is also presenting itself in Chicago, as residents in Black neighborhoods, like Chatham, have been experiencing historic precipitation and flooding. Although the city’s last two mayors promised to invest in sustainable stormwater management plans, the lack of fulfillment of these promises has left residents to contend with homes inundated with stormwater. The National Academy of Sciences reported that from 2004 to 2014, flood-related subsidized grants, loans and insurance payments in Chicago and its suburbs were only exceeded by funding in hurricane recovery areas. 

As climate change proceeds, we will have to plan more proactively, particularly in low-income communities of color. While reacting to the challenges of climate change is a necessary part of our existence in a warming world, we also need to explore all methods in protecting the most vulnerable. Until we do this, our climate resilience plans will perpetually lag behind catastrophic weather events.

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