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    bay of bengal

    ​A Rohingya man makes a bamboo fence for a house at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on August 26, 2020.

    'Very, Very Scary': Intensifying Cyclone Mocha Takes Aim at World's Largest Refugee Camp

    "This is a near worst-case scenario for one of the most storm surge flood vulnerable regions in the world," one scientist warned. "I hate to say it but we're looking at a potential mass casualty event."

    Kenny Stancil
    May 12, 2023

    Officials in Bangladesh and Myanmar are preparing Friday to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people as a tropical storm turbocharged by the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis strengthens in the Bay of Bengal.

    Cyclone Mocha is forecast to intensify further before making landfall on Sunday between western Myanmar and the Bangladeshi city of Cox's Bazar, home to the world's largest refugee camp. Roughly 1 million Rohingya people forced to flee Myanmar amid the country's ongoing genocide against them live in the highly exposed district.

    Keep ReadingShow Less
    News
    cyclone mocha
    Girls use a temporary raft across a flooded street in a residential area after heavy monsoon rains in Karachi on July 26, 2022

    CO2 Levels Are the Highest in a Million Years as Extreme Weather and Flooding Rage Across the Globe

    We can change all this, but we have to hurry to shut down CO2 emissions quickly.

    Juan Cole
    Sep 01, 2022

    CNN reports that satellite photos show that the overflowing Indus has created a new body of water in southern Pakistan some 62 miles (100km) wide. It will take days or weeks for the water to recede, and in the meantime millions are left homeless and over all, 33 million people have been affected by the worst monsoon floods in recorded history. CNN quotes Pakistan's Climate Minister Sherry Rahman as saying "That parts of the country 'resemble a small ocean,' and that 'by the time this is over, we could well have one-quarter or one-third of Pakistan under water.'"

    Because of our burning of fossil fuels to drive cars and heat and cool buildings, the world is heating up. But the Indian Ocean is heating up a third faster than the rest of the world. Very warm waters in the Bay of Bengal are helping create more destructive cyclones and flooding. The air over warming waters contains more moisture than the 20th century average. Warming waters also make the winds that blow over them more erratic, and wayward winds from the Arabian Sea helped push the heavy monsoon rains farther north than they usually extend.

    Keep ReadingShow Less
    Opinion
    extreme weather
    Hurricane Laura

    Is 2020's Record-Breaking Hurricane Season What the Future Holds?

    "Globally, tropical cyclones are about 25 percent more likely to be at major-hurricane intensity now than four decades ago. The chances of rapid intensification in the 1980s was about one in 100 in the Atlantic. Nowadays, the chances are 1 in 20."

    Tina Gerhardt
    Dec 09, 2020

    The most active Atlantic hurricane season on record began two weeks ahead of schedule and ended on November 30, 2020. Overall, this season was one for the record books. There were 30 named storms (meaning storms where top winds were 39 miles per hour or greater instead of the average 12). Of those storms, 13 were hurricanes (top winds of 74 mph or greater) and six were major hurricanes (top winds of 111 mph or greater). This season surpasses the previous record holder, 2005, which witnessed 28 storms and 15 named hurricanes, and marks only the second time in recorded history when meteorologists ran out of names before the season was over and had to resort to the Greek alphabet.

    The 2020 season also forms part of a pattern that calls into question what even constitutes an "average" season. It is the fifth consecutive year with an above average hurricane season. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this year's record-breaking season was enhanced by La Nina, a global weather pattern that causes heavier storms in some areas and droughts in others. Research by climate scientists predicts that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the number of extreme weather events charged by La Nina and El Nino will likely rise as well.

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    Opinion
    extreme weather

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