Florence from International Space Station. NASA
By Andy Rowell
As I write, Typhoon Mangkhut and Hurricane Florence are still making waves on different continents leaving millions of people to pick up the cost of these two destructive storms.
<p>In Asia, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/15/super-typhoonmangkhut-kills-least-eight-smashes-philippines/" target="_blank">Typhoon Mangkhut</a> is one of the most powerful storms to hit the region for decades. Although Mangkhut was downgraded from a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45543664" target="_blank">typhoon</a> to a tropical storm as it moved into southern China Monday, it has still left a trail of destruction from Hong Kong to the Philippines.</p><p>At least 65 people are dead, with the number likely to rise as frantic efforts are underway to rescue trapped miners in the country. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/17/mangkhut-leaves-death-destruction-and-chaos-from-philippines-to-china" target="_blank">In China</a>, more than 2.4 million people had been evacuated in southern China's Guangdong due to the storm.</p><p>Meanwhile, in the U.S., although Hurricane Florence has weakened in the last two days, the authorities are still concerned about rising waters. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45544424" target="_blank">The coastal</a> city of 120,000 people of Wilmington, North Carolina, is currently cut off from the rest of the state because of heavy floods. Some 17 people are now known to have died.</p><p>As bad as these storms are, could things actually get worse in the future? The short answer is yes. More and more commentators and scientists are warning that the ferocity of these storms is linked to climate change and yes, things could get worse.</p><p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-09-16/extreme-weather-like-hurricanes-can-be-linked-to-climate-change" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a> commentator, David Fickling wrote an article Monday, entitled: <em>You Can Blame Bad Storms on Climate Change</em> that said: "Climate change has dramatically increased the likelihood of several recent extreme weather events ... The frequency of extreme weather events in the U.S. and Canada has been rising for decades."</p><p>As I <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2018/09/13/florence-and-the-extreme/" target="_blank">blogged about last week</a>, <a href="https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/you.stonybrook.edu/dist/4/945/files/2018/09/climate_change_Florence_0911201800Z_final-262u19i.pdf" target="_blank">one study</a> published last week estimated that Florence was stronger and would deposit 50 percent more rainfall due to climate change. The scientists stated: "We find that rainfall will be significantly increased by over 50% in the heaviest precipitating parts of the storm."</p><p>One of the world's most respected climate scientists, Michael E. Mann, and co-author of <em>The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening our Planet, Ruining our Politics and Driving us Crazy</em>, has also weighed into the debate.</p><p>He wrote that "What matters is that there is a consensus we'll see stronger and worse flood-producing storms—and, in fact, we're <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/what-we-know-about-the-climate-change-hurricane-connection/" target="_blank">seeing them already</a>." He called Hurricane Florence "a climatologically-amplified triple threat" of "wind damage," "storm surge" and "inland flooding."</p><p>As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/14/florence-climate-change-triple-threat" target="_blank">Mann</a> stated: "Warmer oceans mean more moisture in the atmosphere. It's one of the simplest relationships in all of meteorology: for each 1C of warming, there is about 7% more moisture in the air. That means those 1.5C-above-normal ocean temperatures have given the storm about 10% more moisture. All other things being equal, that implies about 10% more rainfall."</p><p>He concluded: "Some headlines have reported that Florence is a warning of what is to come. But in reality, it is a warning of what has already arrived. Far worse is to come if we don't get serious, in a hurry, about acting on climate change."</p><p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/15/hurricane-category-6-this-is-how-world-ends-book-climate-change" target="_blank">author Jeff Nesbit's forthcoming</a> book <em>This Is The Way The World Ends</em> is published later this month. At its height Florence was a category 4 Hurricane. Nesbit argued that "There is no such thing as a category 6 hurricane or tropical storm—yet. But a combination of warmer oceans and more water in the atmosphere could make the devastation of 2017 pale in comparison."</p><p>He too warned that more water vapor and water temperatures could create "super storms" that "we haven't seen before—and aren't really prepared for."</p><p>"No one in America has ever experienced the wrath and fury of a category 6 hurricane, which now genuinely seems possible and realistic. We've been lucky," Nesbit wrote: "Unofficial category 6 hurricanes have appeared in other parts of the world, and we're seeing much stronger storms on a regular basis … It's only a matter of time before one hits the U.S."</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2018/09/17/only-a-matter-of-time-before-category-6-hurricane-hits-u-s/" target="_blank">Oil Change International</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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Powerful typhoon Mangkhut attacks Hong Kong, China on Sept. 16 in Hong Kong. TPG / Getty Images Entertainment / Getty Images
While Hurricane Florence inundated the Carolinas this weekend, Typhoon Mangkhut, the most powerful storm so far this year, battered the Philippines and Hong Kong before moving on to China's Guangdong Province Sunday, The Huffington Post reported.
<p>"Typhoon Mangkhut is a huge monster with very similar strengths as Hurricane Florence," Chinese University of Hong Kong associate professor Yuan Xu told The Huffington Post. </p><p>The storm first struck the northern tip of the Philippines' Luzon Island Saturday morning, killing at least 64 in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a> and landslides, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/weather/2018/sep/16/typhoon-mangkhut-to-china-as-philippines-death-toll-rises" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. </p><p>The two most devastating landslides were in the mountainous Benguet Province, where 38 died and 37 are still missing, police said.</p><p>One of the landslides trapped dozens of miners and their families who had sought shelter in an old mining bunkhouse turned chapel, Itogen Mayor Victorio Palangdan told <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/typhoon-mangkhut-china-1.4825728" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>. </p><p>"They thought they were really safe there," Palangdan said, adding that the villagers were very poor and had few options despite wealthy corporations getting rich from gold mining in the region.</p><p>Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte repeated a desire Monday to "close all mining" in the country following the landslides, <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/asia-storm-philippines-duterte/philippine-president-repeats-desire-to-close-all-mining-after-landslides-idUKP9N1TL00A" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p>Government officials are also worried about the impact of the typhoon on <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/agriculture" target="_self">agriculture</a> in the Philippines, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45543664" target="_blank">BBC News reported</a>. </p><p>The storm devastated the key farming region of Cagayan, and adviser to Duterte Francis Tolentino told BBC News that only a fifth of the region's produce had been harvested before the storm. </p><p>Mangkhut then moved to Hong Kong Sunday, where it shuttered businesses, canceled around 900 flights and injured more than 200, BBC News reported. </p><p>Strong winds tore the corner off of a building, collapsed bamboo scaffolding and caused a storm surge that rose around 13 feet, The Huffington Post reported.</p><p>Winds also caused the city's high-rises to move.</p><p>"It swayed for quite a long time, at least two hours," Hong Kong resident Elaine Wong told Reuters of her building, according to BBC News. "It made me feel so dizzy."</p><p>Neighboring Macau closed all of its casinos for the first time in its history, BBC News reported.</p><p>The storm reached China's Guangdong Province Sunday afternoon with winds of 100 miles per hour, The Guardian reported.</p><p>More than 2.4 million people were evacuated before the storm struck, and the Chinese state broadcaster said four people had died as of Monday morning. </p><p>Schools in the area are closed until Tuesday, The Guardian reported, and the storm will move on to Guizhou, Chongqing and Yunnan provinces later Monday, BBC News reported. </p><p>While no study has yet been done assessing the degree to which <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_blank">climate change</a> contributed to Mangkhut, the storm the China Meteorological Administration called the "King of Storms," as The Guardian reported, is in line with the type of storm expected to become more common as the planet warms. </p><p>"We do know that, on average, climate change is making storms stronger, causing them to intensify faster, increasing the amount of rainfall associated with a given storm, and even making them move more slowly," Texas Tech University atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe told The Huffington Post. </p>
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Rain covers the city lying on the path of Typhoon Mangkhut as residents prepare its approach on Sept. 14 in Tuguegarao city, northern Philippines. Jes Aznar / Getty Images News / Getty Images
Millions of people, including 1 million living below the poverty line, are directly in the path of powerful super typhoon Mangkhut as the 550-mile-wide storm churns towards the Philippines.
<p>Thousands are being evacuated from their homes before the storm is expected to make landfall on Saturday morning. The storm, which has maximum wind speeds of 170 mph, tore through Guam on Thursday, leaving 80 percent of the island without power. </p><p>"We haven't seen a typhoon this powerful hit the Philippines in some time," Alberto Muyot, CEO of disaster relief group Save the Children Philippines, told the New York Times. "We're particularly concerned about those living in coastal and low-lying communities, which are set to face ferocious winds, heavy rainfall and flooding, as well as the risk of storm surge." An HSBC survey earlier this year <a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=d8b50b9e19&e=992ed4d5cc" target="_blank">ranked</a> the Philippines the third most-vulnerable country to climate change in the world.</p><p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/world/asia/typhoon-mangkhut-philippines-hong-kong.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/14/asia/typhoon-mangkhut-philippines-intl/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45517803" target="_blank">BBC</a>, <a href="https://www.axios.com/super-typhoon-mangkhut-strongest-storm-771e3ff0-d769-45ae-a2bf-25c27ff33aca.html" target="_blank">Axios</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-14/most-powerful-typhoon-of-2018-set-to-cause-disruption-in-asia" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/philippines-starts-massive-evacuations-huge-typhoon-nears-n909256" target="_blank">NBC</a>, <a href="http://time.com/5396032/philippines-typhoon-mangkhut-cagayan/" target="_blank">Time</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-storm/wind-rain-lashes-north-philippines-as-huge-typhoon-approaches-idUSKCN1LU0WF" target="_blank">Reuters</a></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>
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