eli5: I know that these most recent severe storms and disasters are undoubtedly a result of worsening climate change, but as a non-science person I don’t understand exactly how/why.
In: Planetary Science
* The actual energy of hurricanes comes from heat in ocean water. All the energy powering the winds and lifting and dropping the rain originates as heat in the ocean surface water.
* Part of climate change is the oceans are getting warmer, especially the surface water, as they absorb heat being trapped on Earth by the greenhouse effect we’re creating with our CO2 and methane emissions.
=> Warmer oceans = more heat available = stronger storms with more energy to burn off
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