Climate Change to Increase Hurricane Intensity, Posing Problems for Disadvantaged Communities

According to recent research, climate change may not result in significantly more hurricanes year to year—at least in the Atlantic Ocean. However it is likely to mean that hurricanes and other tropical storm which do form will be more intense and present a graver threat to human lives and property. This should be worrying to communities throughout the coastal tropics, but is especially worrying for economically disadvantaged communities, which tend to be hardest-hit by hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Some of the most recent studies on the link between climate change and severe weather in the Atlantic has been done by Thomas Knutson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). According to Knutson, climate change is expected to cause stronger winds in the Earth's upper atmosphere that could actually reduce the overall number of hurricanes by interfering with their formation. But at the same time the number of very dangerous hurricanes is likely to increase dramatically; Knutson predicts the frequency of category four and five hurricanes could double by century's end.

This presents a dilemma for governments, non-profits, and humanitarian groups trying to improve standards of living in developing countries and in poor coastal communities in the United States. Five years ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the public woke up to the disproportionately large impact hurricanes have on those who aren't wealthy enough to make a quick escape. As intense tropical storms become more common, climate change will tax the already thinly spread resources of aide groups, making it even more difficult to prevent heavy loss of life.

There could hardly be a clearer example of how climate change stands to take a heavy toll on the world's poor—yet this example is just one among many. From droughts in Africa, to reduced water access in Asia, to rising sea levels encroaching on Pacific islands, the effects of climate change will be hardest felt by those who can't pay their way out of difficulty. Why, then, are efforts to mitigate climate change still seen by many as an attack on the poor? Whether by raising electricity prices in industrialized countries or preventing developing nations from burning cheap fuel for energy, allies of the fossil fuel industries again and again try to frame mitigation efforts as burdensome to populations that are already disadvantaged.

The truth is climate change hurts the poor more than anyone else, and will devastate thousands of low-income communities if major economies don't quickly act to reduce greenhouse emissions. After all it's not fossil fuel company executives, profiting off the world's reliance on coal and oil, who are likely to be affected by stronger tropical storms in the Atlantic. Rather it's people in the same communities who where hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina, who simply can't afford the price of continued reliance on fossil fuels.

Photo credit: Philanthro Media