As summer ends and the weather becomes colder, many people around Montgomery County have noticed an inconsistency in weather patterns. This unpredictability is causing concerns around the community for what is to come in the future.
According to EarthJustice, human activity is causing these rapid changes in the global climate. The main factor contributing to global warming is the prolonged use and burning of fossil fuels. The emissions release large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas trapped in the atmosphere, leading to an increase in temperature.
According to CNBC, the summer of 2023 had the highest recorded temperatures, surpassing that of 2016, and currently the warmest year ever recorded.
In addition to human activity, there have been three more natural factors playing a part in fluctuations of global temperatures. As mentioned in The Conversation, these factors include El Niño, solar fluctuations, and massive underwater volcanic eruptions.
El Niño is a phenomenon that occurs every few years. It happens when the surface water in the Pacific Ocean reverses directions and heats up. This phenomenon then warms up the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.
Solar fluctuations happen when the sun slowly boils away from the Earth’s oceans, occurring during every solar cycle. Most of the time, underwater volcanic eruptions lower global temperatures by blocking a portion of sunlight with sulfate aerosols. However, large volcanic eruptions may release water vapor into the atmosphere. Since water vapor is a greenhouse gas, it can stay in the atmosphere for many years, so the eruption ends up warming Earth’s surface.
Other places of the world have experienced even worse effects of climate change. Places like Libya have been experiencing severe floods, and even places up north like Canada have been experiencing conflagrations. While Maryland has not been as heavily affected, the increasingly inconsistent climate around Montgomery County has started to impact the students.
Because the weather is constantly changing, it makes weather predictions much harder. As a result, students are finding it much more challenging to dress suitably, potentially making it more likely for peers around the county to get sick.
Richard Montgomery sophomore Alessandro Lisa states, “personally, I nor no one I know has really been affected or gotten sick from global warming…I don’t think it’s really viable for MoCo to take any big measures related to global warming like shutting down schools or anything like that, especially since the situation is probably only going to get worse over time and MoCo can’t really control that,” Lisa said. “…the best thing they can do is maybe provide more accessible ways in which students can keep up with their education while being sick.”
Written by Jessica Yao of Richard Montgomery High School
Graphic Courtesy of Meera Menon of Thomas S. Wootton High School