This article is about the climate changes that are global as well as local. Sometimes you hear things like "the temperature will rise with 2,5-4 degrees in the next hundred years". That is a type of change you can’t see happening in your lifespan. My article is about the changes that have, can or perhaps will happen WITHIN your lifetime.

Waves:

For as long as humans have witnessed the ravages of the sea it’s been the mighty waves in focus. During the recent one hundred years there has been a noticeable increase in very big waves on the big oceans. Those big waves is a massive destructive force when encountering a ship or inhabitated shores. The bigger the body of water, the bigger a wave on it can get, so for those of us who don’t live near any kind of ocean no dramatic change is at hand.

Nowadays ships have to be more careful when traversing oceans, making travelling and shipping wares more dangerous - and more expensive.

Wind:

So the waves are dangerous, but where do they come from? When a wind blows it makes small pits in the water, which in time, if it continues to blow, has the potenital to become big waves. Another thing created when the wind blows is a cyclone. As our planet potentially is warming up, it will cause more winds, and faster ones. One phenomena caused by tropical winds are cyclones - there is one in the picture to the left. Cyclones do not pose a threat to those who live far to the north or the south and for those living right on the equator

- but for people living around the equator cyclones can be very destructive should they head for land instead of the sea, the place where all cyclones are born.
Similar to cyclones are the tornados, a wheather phenomenon that has also increased in frequency in recent years.

Water:

Rain is a source of life, but also one of death. As mighty floods flood the land after heavy rainfalls it can take cars and houses with it along the way, just to name a few. I can say from my own experience that during the summers of 2000 and 2001 we had some of the worst rainfalls ever in Sweden. The heavy rains caused many flooded rivers to pour its water into a few cities, taking away some irrigated lands with it.

Warmth:

Another thing out of my own experience is that we in Sweden have also had some really hot summers the last few years. And that’s not altogether a positive thing, the possibility of small and bigger unintentional fires increases. A lot of old and beautiful forests have disappeared that way – not to mention the economic loss. For us humans too hot wheather is mainly bad, we get tired more quickly, we also have a tendency to become more violent as the temperature rises (I don’t know if that has something to do with the so-called "Latino temperament").

Aftermath:

There are so many other things changing in our world today- and we are probably unaware of most of them. But of the things written in my article it’s become quite clear that the climate IS changing to the extremes on the weather scale- it is becoming more windy, more rainy, and hotter than before. But surely there are changes to the opposites ocurring too. For all we know the nightmare-weather of today can be the reality of tomorrow ...

© 2003 Freeway
Writers: Tomas Olofsson (nv04-36@park.se).
HTML by: Mia Westin (te04-73@park.se).