Task 1

Chosen Topic to expand upon – Rising Ocean Temperatures and Consequential storms

I decided to look into this as it was a topic that I have had an interest in it previously. Storms have gotten worse over the years and I thought this to be a good section to take from the video to look into further.

Research over the past several years, research has gone into looking at the relationship between the rising temperatures of the ocean and how they are affecting/causing hurricanes. It was found that during the last 35 years the amount of category 4 and 5 hurricanes has doubled even though the total amount of hurricanes have in fact decreased. The amount of hurricanes that occur could just be a natural occurrence and may not be as affected by outside factors but the fact that the dangerous high category hurricanes have doubled in occurrence asks questions about why this is.

An increase of water temperature has been recorded over these years and is believed to have a direct affect on the storms that occur and pass over warmer waters. Even though the change in temperature is only within a few degree's researchers believe that even that is capable of making drastic changes to the environment around it could be the catalyst that causes hurricanes to become so much more devastating.

Some researchers agree with this, that the increase in ocean temperatures have affected the intensity of storms and this is why there have been significantly more stronger storms than 20 years ago. As stated by a researcher who supports this theory, the warmer temperatures mean that there will be more water vapour in the air and when this is mixed with certain wind patterns it causes hurricanes to become much stronger and destructive. This means that if true even a tiny increase in the ocean temperature could make hurricanes far more dangerous and in turn cause an unbelievable amount of damage.

There are other researchers they believe that there is no direct link between the oceans temperature and hurricane intensity and that it nothing more that climate variability. I think that this is a bit ignorant and that even though there have been possible links between the subject it feels like some people are choosing to ignore them and not consider the possibility that there is a link.

Global warming has been linked to the increase in sea temperatures by the greenhouse gases preventing more solar rays from escaping and therefore warming the earth. If true, then this means with the greenhouse gasses being pumped into the atmosphere it will not only just make the earth warmer but it will also make the oceans temperature rise, even if it is at a slow rate.

If true, all of these factors all affect each other directly. Global Warming is warming the earth and its oceans, the sea temperatures rise, the hurricanes pass over the warmer waters and pick up more moisture and speed and become higher category hurricanes.

I think that there are facts within what researchers are saying and that the evidence to back up the relationship between ocean temperature and storm intensity does give reason to believe that if ocean temperatures continue to rise then we may see much larger affects. This should be watched carefully and acts to prevent the causes of ocean temperature should be continued otherwise in several years we may end up seeing some powerful storms that could leave city's/countries devastated.