Environment
Extreme weather
The New Age of Disasters
Also known as extreme climate events, extreme climate event, extreme weather
When the planet heats up, the weather doesn't just get warmer, it gets wilder, with floods, heatwaves and storms that hit harder than before. The scary part is who gets hurt: usually the people with the least money to prepare or rebuild. That connects to Mathematics, because predicting a disaster is really about probability and risk, the odds of the worst thing happening. It also reaches Sociology, since a storm exposes who is rich and who is poor, and Media, because the way the news frames a disaster decides how much the rest of us actually care.
Key people
- Sonia I. SeneviratneSwiss climate scientist
Timeline
- 1920In the 1920s, 5.4 million people died from natural disasters while in the 2010s, just 400,000 did.
- 2000There were around 6,681 climate-related events reported during 2000–2019, compared to 3,656 climate-related events reported during 1980–1999.
- 2006It has been estimated that extra pollution during the hot summer of 2006 in the UK, cost 460 lives.
- 2023The survey was conducted after the 2023 heat waves.
Read
- Extreme WeatherChristopher C. Burt · 2004Book
- Cultural Histories, Memories and Extreme WeatherGeorgina H. Endfield · 2017Book
- Extreme Weather and Global MediaJulia Leyda · 2015Book
- You Wouldn't Want to Live Without Extreme Weather!Roger Canavan · 2015Book
Listen
- U. S. Energy Sector Vulnerabilities to Climate Change and Extreme WeatherUnited States Department of EnergyPodcast
- AI Extreme Weather and ClimateZhi LiPodcast
- EWV Radio NetworkExtreme Weather VideosPodcast
- SkredpoddenCARE & VARSOMPodcast
By the numbers
- 4.7CO₂ per person (t) — global, 2024 (World Bank)
- 31.1Forest area (% land) — global, 2023 (World Bank)
Debates
- Is every extreme weather event directly caused by human-induced climate change?One view: Yes, the increased frequency and intensity of many extreme weather events are now directly attributable to human-caused global warming. · Another: No, while climate change influences events, natural variability has always existed, and not every single event can be solely blamed on human activity.Open question
- Should societies prioritize adapting to extreme weather or mitigating climate change?One view: Prioritizing mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions) is crucial to prevent future extreme weather from worsening. · Another: Prioritizing adaptation (building resilience to current and future impacts) is essential because some level of extreme weather is already unavoidable.Open question
Glossary
- Extreme Weather EventA weather event that is unusual in its severity or frequency for a specific location and time of year.
- Climate ChangeLong-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, largely caused by human activities.
- AdaptationAdjustments in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects.
- MitigationActions taken to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases or enhance their removal from the atmosphere.
- ResilienceThe capacity of a system to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain its essential function.
- Greenhouse GasGases in Earth's atmosphere that trap heat, such as carbon dioxide and methane, contributing to global warming.
Careers
Roles this can lead toward
Threads 5
Where this connects to other fields — and why it's worth knowing.
- Gatekeeping, Agenda-Setting & Framing Media
Heatwaves quietly kill more people than floods or hurricanes do. But they get way less news coverage, because a hot day makes no dramatic footage. There's nothing scary to film when the disaster is just a rising number on a thermometer.
- Probability, Risk & Uncertainty Mathematics
The first group to give up on a flooding coastline isn't the government, it's the insurance company. When they decide a place is too risky to insure, the math nerds who calculate risk have basically declared it unlivable, long before anyone official says so.
- Cognitive Biases Psychology
People keep rebuilding homes in flood zones because our brains misjudge rare disasters. Before a flood hits, it feels impossible; right after, it feels safe again, 'lightning won't strike twice.' The mind systematically underrates those rare, catastrophic events, so we bet against them and lose.
- Inequality & Class Sociology
After a flood or fire, aid money tends to follow expensive property. So the rich rebuild their damaged homes, while poorer families, whose cheaper places 'weren't worth as much,' often can't return at all. Each disaster quietly shifts wealth upward and pushes the poor out for good.
- Operations & Supply Chains Business
One flood in one province can freeze factories across the whole planet. Why? Companies got so efficient they stopped keeping spare parts lying around — "just in time" delivery. That extra padding used to absorb shocks, and now it's gone.