A Need for a More Educated Public – Blog Post 13 - Oct 17

In my last blog post, I discussed why people may think that climate change is a hoax.  In addition to educating people that it is in fact not a hoax, American citizens also need to be educated about the science of climate change because it is clear that many people do not even know the basics.  I have heard people say before that they are wearing a sweatshirt or that it is cold outside, so global warming must not be true.  These people think that global warming is simply the warming of the planet a few degrees, which does not sound like a big deal.  In reality, the problem is climate change, or the changing of climate patterns that make life for humans more difficult to bear.  We, as a civilization, have already settled in the best places to support human life so if the climate changes, we will have to adapt to a place less suited for human life.  People do not realize that the change in climate patterns, from rainfall to temperature, will affect every area of life.  These changes will impact not only ecosystems, but agriculture, the economy, and the viability to live in certain areas.  People need to understand these connections to appreciate the severity of climate change.  As I read Dr. Jeff Master’s WonderBlog titled “Causes of the Russian Heat Wave and Pakistani Floods,” I realized how confused most people would be that events like floods are related to climate change.  Although almost everybody relates climate change to heat, it is very much related to water as well, since water and regional temperature are closely related. 

The article “Causes of the Russian Heat Wave and Pakistani Floods” discussed two of the most intense weather events that have occurred in the past century.  The Great Russian Heat Wave of 2010 was only comparable to the North American heat wave of July 1936 and the European heat wave of 2003, showing how significant it was.  The author discussed the research of Feudale and Shukla, which hypothesized that increased sea surface temperatures (SSTs) caused the polar jet stream to move in a certain way that caused a drought in Russia and massive flooding in Pakistan.  This polar jet stream brings “extratropical cyclones” to areas, which essentially bring precipitation and more moderate temperatures when it collides with the subtropical jetstream.  The higher SSTs may have caused the polar jetstream to move north over Russia and south into Pakistan, leaving Russia hot and dry and dumping the rain that usually falls over Russia into Pakistan.  Although no single event can be described as a result of climate change, climate change may have been the cause of the higher SSTs, which may have caused the heat wave and floods. 

            After reading this article, two things became apparent to me.  The first was reinforcement on my original idea that most people would not even think about a correlation between floods and climate change.  The other was that although I understand that floods are related to a rising global temperature by changing water patterns, I barely understand climatology either!  The discussion on jetstreams and how they create “lows” and bring “extratropical cyclones” to areas went right over my head.  I’ve taken some environmental science classes, and I have just realized that wind and water patterns really are not even discussed!

            In conclusion, this article did not only remind me that most people do not understand climate change, but it also showed me that I do not understand the environment as well as I would like to.  Even though I have shown the initiative to take environmental science classes, I have still not learned the basics of wind and water patterns.  Environmental education does not only need to reach more people.  It also needs to be improved as a whole.