Image prompt: Van goghs starry night but the night sky is filled with dark storms and lightning
[The following was copied and pasted from GPT-4 after I fed it a transcript of a 3 minute ramble I had recorded while walking just now and asked it to turn it into a 1500 word blog in the style of Morgan Housel]
Energy in the Air: The Intensifying Cycle of Climate Change and Storms
The world is full of simple truths hidden beneath the surface of complex phenomena. One such truth, as pertinent as it is alarming, concerns the relationship between climate change and the increasing intensity of storms. The explanation for this relationship is deeply rooted in physics, but at its heart, it's as simple as understanding that more energy results in more heat.
To grasp this concept fully, we need to comprehend the role of energy in our atmosphere. Air isn't just a life-sustaining mix of oxygen, nitrogen, and a few other gases; it's also a reservoir of energy. When we speak about more 'energy in the air,' we are referring to the capacity of the air to do work, to cause change. This energy can be manifested as heat, motion, or even the potential to create these states.
One aspect of climate change is a steady rise in global temperatures, a phenomenon you might know as global warming. In essence, we are pumping more and more energy into the Earth's system, which, in turn, raises the Earth's temperature. The hotter the air, the more energy it has. This energy needs to go somewhere, and that's when things get stormy.
The thing with storms, whether thunderstorms, hurricanes, or tornadoes, is that they are fundamentally giant energy release systems. The energy packed into hot, humid air becomes the fuel for these violent climatic events. It's a simple relationship: the more energy available, the more intense the storm. This energy creates stronger winds, heavier rainfall, and, unfortunately, more destruction.
Kansas City, for example, recently witnessed this reality first-hand. A so-called 'routine thunderstorm' turned destructive, resulting in a record number of tree damages. The power company noted that the storm had produced winds up to 70 mph, a testament to the increasing energy in our atmosphere.
With global warming trending upwards, the oceans are heating, ice caps are melting, and we are essentially stuck in an escalating loop. The more the earth warms, the more energy is available, which in turn fuels more violent storms. This pattern predicts more than just an increase in the frequency of such storms; it foretells an increase in their intensity.
We can see this in the hurricane seasons as well. Warmer oceans provide more energy, leading to larger, more powerful hurricanes. As these storms grow stronger, they also become more destructive, causing increased damage, especially when property values are consistently rising.
The recent hailstorm near Venice, Italy, serves as another example of this alarming trend. It wasn't just another storm; it was a violent display of the increasing energy within our atmosphere.
What makes these storms particularly dangerous is the difference - or disparity - in energy levels that can occur within them. When a cold front moves through a high-energy, warm air mass, the difference in energy levels can create violently unstable conditions. This disparity is often where tornadoes form. It's the 'front line' of the storm, where the transition from hot to cold happens. The larger the gap between the hot and cold - the greater the energy difference - the more violent the resulting storm.
And it's not just tornadoes. In the west, the risk of wildfires is also escalating. Hotter, drier conditions provide more fuel for these fires, resulting in larger, more destructive wildfires that cause widespread devastation.
The threat of climate change is not that we're all going to roast as the earth heats up by a few degrees. The real threat lies in the rising frequency and intensity of storms and natural disasters. The shifts in our weather patterns are becoming more erratic, with storms occurring out of season and natural disaster records being shattered regularly. The energy increase in the atmosphere leads to more violent storms, a larger disparity in energy levels, and ultimately, more frequent and unpredictable weather events.
In summary, the chain of events goes like this: more energy leads to more heat, more heat leads to more intense storms, and more intense storms lead to more damage and destruction. It's a simple, if unsettling, truth. It's the story of how energy in the air becomes a tempest on the ground. As we continue to grapple with the effects of climate change, understanding this basic relationship can help us prepare for what's to come and, hopefully, inspire us to change our course.