Isabel Caton December 7, 2016
Schlossberg, Tatiana. "Climate Change Will Bring Wetter Storms in U.S., Study Says." The New York Times. The New York Times, 06 Dec. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
I read the article “Climate Change Will Bring Wetter Storms in U.S., Study Says” by Tatiana Schlossberg. I thought this article was very interesting and I was able to learn a lot. Research has suggested that climate change will lead to an increase in big storms that cause flash floods, landslides and other natural disasters. A new study by Dr. Prein from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado showed that intense precipitation will increase across the continental United States. Rainstorms may become more frequent and intense if greenhouse gas emissions remain at current levels. The study shows that these intense storms could become five times as frequent, and there could be 70 percent more rain, potentially turning into a heavy storm something close to a “biblical flood.” The Pacific Northwest is already wet, and the central United States might become drier on average, but even there extreme rainfall is likely to intensify, the researchers said “that means there could be both an increased risk of droughts and of flash floods.” It seems like the big rainstorms will help alleviate drought in the Midwest or somewhere else, but the opposite can actually happen. If a heavy rainstorm occurs during a drought, it can lead to soil erosion, which washes away the plants that help the soil absorb moisture. This study found that humidity was a key factor, because extreme precipitation is likely to increase with rising temperatures because of growing atmospheric humidity, leading to a higher risk of flash flood nationwide.
This article is very important for the future, and knowing what might come. With so much rain it can cause more harmful mudslides, landslides and other natural disasters. This can cause the destruction of many habitats and of cities and towns. The United States needs to prepare, Dr. Prein said that this research show that many areas of the country need to build or restore infrastructure, including reservoirs and storm sewers. Without regular, gentler rain to restore the soil, conditions will continue to worsen. This can harm the farms and make it harder to plant and harvest crops.
This article taught me a lot about the new research that the scientists are doing to predict what climate change will bring in the future. The author provided good information and elaborated on the issue. However, the article was a little hard to follow because it gave out a lot of information and didn’t describe or explain it thoroughly. I also think that the author went into more detail about how they are doing this research and what we can do to stop or prevent this from happening. But overall I thought that this article was very interesting and I am curious to see what happens in the future.
I commented on Isabel’s review of “Climate Change Will Bring Wetter Storms in U.S., Study Says.” I thought she did a great job reviewing the article. I like how she included facts from the article to show the severity of the article. She said that storms would occur five times more often and would have 70% more precipitation. I also liked how she said how this would directly affect people in the US. For example, she wrote that the heavy rain during droughts can cause soil erosion and be devastating to farmers. Finally, I liked how Isabel explained why this increased precipitation would occur and that is because of the humidity rises as the temperatures do.
ReplyDeleteEven though Isabel had a very well-written article, there were some areas she could have improved. Isabel could have better explained how droughts could be caused by this changing weather, in addition to more storms. I was confused how this fact related to the study and what exactly it meant. Another area that could use some improvement is when Isabel connected this article to society. Although she was able to do this, she failed to mention our section of the country. This made the article fail to seem relevant to me personally.
Overall, the article and Isabel’s review were very well-written. I found it interesting how global warming can cause changes in more than one area. It was extremely interesting how much global warming could actually affect precipitation levels. I was amazed that such large, frequent storms may be affecting us soon. I would love to learn more about all the other ways that global warming will affect us in the future and how we know, because it seems like something that is hard to predict. This article made me realize just how important it is to stop climate change and protect the environment.