How Climate Change is Fueling Stronger Hurricanes




Our life is inextricably linked to the health of our environment. And water is the link that ties us to everything on Earth. Pretty much everything is made of water, or at least “with” water: our bodies and clothes, our industries and constructions. Even unsuspected consumers like server farms drink crazy amounts of water. And let’s not even mention the 160 liters we exhaust to make one kilogram of plastic.

The entire cycle of evaporation, precipitation, runoff, and global water movement is at the heart of our climate system, no matter where you live. But the ocean ecosystem, moving water around the globe, is now in peril. Pollution, overexploitation, and massive greenhouse gas emissions are pushing it to the brink. Weather patterns are changing due to warmer ocean temperatures. And it’s not just those living on the shores who bear the brunt; the oceans’ wrath knows no boundaries.

My hometown in Patagonia is 150 kilometers away from the closest ocean, the Pacific. Yet, most of our weather is dictated by what happens there: storms and cyclones develop in the southern Pacific, then hit the shores of Chile, to further climb the Andes Mountain Range, and finally appear on this side of the continent, fading away towards the arid steppe and the Atlantic shore of Argentina. If there’s any anomaly, like this winter, we definitely feel it.