Intense Weather Events - Ecosystem and/or Human Impacts

Intense Weather Events – Ecosystem and/or Human Impacts1
Intense Weather Events – Ecosystem and/or Human Impacts
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Intense Weather Events – Ecosystem and/or Human Impacts2
Intense Weather Events – Ecosystem and/or Human Impacts
An Introductory Overview of Intense Weather Events
This paper provides the analysis and deep examination of the role of media in portraying
the intense weather events including ecosystem and human impacts on the conditions. Various
scientific reports and news have regarding the intense weather events happening on a global
scale have been published. These publications have involved different scholars, media houses,
and research organizations such as higher institutions of learning (Barry &Jonathan, 2015;
British Ecological Society,2017). Climate is considered to be the most significant in causing
influence on the ecosystem globally. Changes that occur in climatic conditions pose various
impacts on the ecosystem and human beings. For instance, the occurrence of global warming
may end up forcing nonresistant species to migrate to higher elevations or higher latitudes where
the temperatures are conducive and support their survival there. Continuous climatic changes
have brought about instability in the sea levels. This has resulted intovarious negative impacts
such as the intrusion of the salty water into the fresh water system causing the death or relocating
of some species. Various intense weather events or climatically changes not only affect species
and ecosystems but also affect other human features such as development. Various media houses
such as BBC have been running several news stories regarding the impact of the continued
changes in the weather conditions have on human beings. For instance, the occurrence of intense
weather events through climatic changes may result in negative consequences posed to the weak
coast areas by the land development.
Different media journals and news have pointed at the major role played by humans in
causing these changes. Continuous developments globally through industrialization and

Intense Weather Events – Ecosystem and/or Human Impacts3
infrastructural development coupled with daily population expulsion have resulted in extreme
climatic and weather events such as droughts, and heavy rainfall. These negative climatical
consequences pose a major risk or threat to human beings in the society (Science Daily, 2014).
This has been experienced through the increasing impacts on communities, infrastructure, and
ecosystems across the world. Currently, the global news involves several reports on the extreme
climatic or weather events that are occurring on a regular basis. Therefore, all these occurrences
have increased the number of questions from both the public and various media houses but the
expected climatic changes and their impacts on the ecosystem or human beings (British
Ecological Society, 2017). Continuous climatic changes pose threatening effects on the living
world such as changes in the ecosystem, people, ecosystem services and biodiversity. This will
reduce of the ray of benefits which are provided by the ecosystems and biodiversity to the human
beings such as drinking water, fisheries, fertile soils to support the growth of crops, cultural
values, climate regulation among others.
Though ecosystem services play a great role in providing jobs, health, economic growth,
and human wellbeing. Thecontinuous climatic or weather changes are elusive since they are
mostly affected by many external factors. The perturbations on the ecosystems that are as a result
of the changes in the climatic or weather conditions have a direct impact on human beings such
as reduced water quality and supply, loss of landscapes and iconic species, destructed rhythms of
nature among others (Tollefson, 2015). In this case, quantifying the human vulnerability that is
as a result of the shifts in the ecosystem services and processes is difficult. For instance, though
it is possible to predict the changes in the water flow, it's more difficult to tell which cities,
habitats, and farms that will be affected by the changes. According to BBC News, (2015), it
highlights the extreme weather events occurring in South Korea. In this case, the news indicates

Intense Weather Events – Ecosystem and/or Human Impacts4
that people can become less vulnerable than in the past through adoption of the extreme weather
conditions. This is due to developments and advances in air conditioning, thermal insulations in
their houses and medical technology. BBC News, (2017) describes the continues climatic
changes over geological time. The news gives the estimation of the average global temperatures
at around 15C in 2017 through various geological reports indicate an increase in the temperatures
than the expected.
Investigations on the causes of the Intense Weather Events
Several research studies have been conducted by various individuals, media organizations
and research institutions regarding the causes of the extreme weather events globally. The
continuous climatic changes have increased on their effects on the ecosystem and human beings
as well. However, each intense event has been linked to anthropogenic and natural causes such
as internal modes of variability in the climate, large-scale circulation, and effects of aerosol like
aerosol marine, volcanic and stratospheric aerosol (European Environmental Agency, 2017
p.364).
Figure shows Extreme Weather Events of prolonged Drought:AMS & NOAA Issue
Annual Report, (Atkins, 2016)