Within the past few years, the USA has seen some pretty intense storms. No doubt with Houston being hit the hardest and certainly praying that Hurricane Irma will not do as much damage as it's characteristics have the ability to.

Right now, Hurricane Irma has hit the carribbean with winds up to 185mph and is the size of the state of Michigan according to the Detroit Free Press. Scientists have been naming Hurricane Irma as a Grey Swan Storm.

"A black swan is a catastrophic event that no one sees coming, while grey swans, as they are known, are extreme events for which there is no historical precedent...". Some examples of Grey Swan events would be Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Sandy. There have been storms before to those extent, in those are but, still none the less devastating.

I am not going to make the claim that Climate Change is the reason for all of these storms. But, I am going to make the claim that Climate Change does increase the intensity of weather events as well as the likelihood for worsened weather events.

Researchers from MIT have been setting up future storm models that claim there will be 10,000 year storms occurring more frequently. The idea of a 10,000 year storm is that there is a long return time for this event to possibly happen again. But, as the earth warms up the return time for 10,000 year storms will drastically drop and hit locations never seen before such as Dubai.

This has been trending for a few years now. As you all know, people are concerned with Greenhouse Gases. These are gases, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, and more that are naturally occurring and help keep the earth at a moderate temperature. Not only does the air hold this temperature but, the ocean will as well. However, when we put more carbon into the atmosphere, we are holding in too much heat. It is like wearing a sweater in fall. You'll probably be comfortable. But, when you put a jacket on, then gloves, then snow pants, then a hat, it starts to get uncomfortable. And your body responds to the change in heat to remain homeostasis, just like the earth.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Atlantic Water basin has increased in temperature about .7 degrees C where the average around the world is .5 degrees C. This does not seem like a lot but, have you ever boiled water? It takes minutes to boil just a little bit of water. Now imagine doing that to the entire ocean from the time period between 1980 and 2017? Sea levels have risen about 8 inches since 1880 and with the increasing ocean boundaries, there is more likely to be higher storm surges. This means flooding, devastation of housing and public works as well as destruction of crops and families being trapped in their homes.

So are these storms likely in the near future? Yes. Are there going to be less natural barriers such as coral reefs, sinking islands, and more to prevent these storms from being so catastrophic.

Well, that is up to us. We have the choice to change behavior or procrastinate. Personally, I do not think it is fair to all of those suffering at the moment if we wait around to make a change.

Keeping my prayers with those impacted by this Hurricane Season. If you are able to please donate to charities helping rebuild devastated areas.