How Climate Change Has Intensified Hurricane Season

• This video provides evidence of hurricanes causing more precipitation and becoming stronger, slower, and larger than in the past. 
• The video includes footage of Katharine Hayhoe discussing these events and providing examples from hurricanes that have hit the Gulf Coast. 
  

Positives

• Students may be surprised to learn that 93% of the extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases is absorbed by the oceans, which may help them make the connection between higher ocean temperatures and stronger hurricanes.
• The information is presented in a very logical and easy-to-follow manner.
  

Additional Prerequisites

• Students should have a basic understanding of the greenhouse effect.
• Students should understand that heat is a form of energy.
  

Differentiation

• Social studies and economics classes could discuss the human and environmental costs of more powerful and/or longer-lived storms and compare those with the costs of addressing climate change, taking into account the additional loss of life (which cannot be measured financially) that may occur from more extreme storms.
• Biology and/or chemistry classes could use this resource as a hook for lessons about the flow of energy through ecosystems, the increasing capacity of the atmosphere to hold more water vapor at higher temperatures, the effects of heat on chemical reactions and on the density of liquid water, and the reduction in dissolved oxygen available in the oceans as they warm.
• For more information about climate change and oceans, check out How Whales Help Fight Climate Change, How Does Temperature Affect the Solubility of CO₂ in Water, and How Acidic Water is Changing the Ocean.