Climate change is quite often passed over as non-existent or non-important, though more recent extreme changes have begun showing people the severity of the issue. NASA states that the planet has only warmed about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since the late nineteenth century, but most of this warming has occurred within the last 35 years. This increased temperature is accompanied by changes in sea level, increased sea temperatures, glacial retreat and weather extremity, including a change in the severity of hurricanes.

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On October 10, Hurricane Michael struck the Florida panhandle with sustained winds of 250 kilometers per hour. It was, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center, the strongest storm to have ever hit the region. ScienceNews describes the cause of this unusually strong storm as a warming of the waters and air around the Gulf of Mexico. The waters around the Gulf were about 1 to 2 degrees Celsius warmer than average for this time of year, with moist air surrounding the eastern United States which allowed for a supercharged storm. ScienceNews also mentions that it is not possible to attribute the generation of a storm to climate change, but scientists have “long predicted that warming ocean waters would lead to more intense tropical cyclones in the future.”

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that humans have caused an increase of water vapor in the air, and this is increasing the frequency of extreme precipitation events. Their latest report states that this extreme precipitation will only continue to increase if the world cannot limit it’s overall warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. This change must occur within just a few years if it is to be successful.

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The Guardian describes a “97 [percent] consensus among climate scientists that humans are responsible for global warming.” Despite this, a Pew Research Center study in 2016 found that “51 [percent] of Americans do not believe global climate change is due to human activity.”

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According to The Washington Post, the damage caused by Hurricane Florence caused Margie White, a former climate-change skeptic, to change her perspective on the topic when her house was punctured by a laurel oak tree. White stated, “I always thought climate change was a bunch of nonsense, but now I really do think it is happening.”

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A survey taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service showed that 59.2 percent of respondents that had experienced extreme weather phenomenon agreed that, “there is solid evidence that the average temperature on Earth has been getting warmer over the past few decades,” and 74.2 percent of these respondents agreed that Earth’s warming was mostly due to “human activity such as burning fossil fuels.”

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Dr. Ben Lyons, from the University of Exeter, described this difference in observation and belief in climate change, stating, “This research shows people’s perception of extreme weather can be processed through partisan lenses. This means efforts to connect extreme events with climate change may do more to rally those with liberal beliefs than convince those with more conservative views that humans are having an impact on the climate.”