Introduction

Dear Readers of This Blog, 

My name is Derk  and I am  an exchange student at the University College London.  Before I came to UCL I studied geography at the University of Amsterdam. At UCL I’m taking a number of modules, one of these modules is Global Environmental Change. Part of the assessment for this module is the making of a blog about a subject that is relevant for this module. 

The module Global Environmental Change is about the assumed impact that humanity has on all the aspect of the environment.  This  impact is ranging from rising sea levels and extreme droughts in the Midwest  to the arrival of vineyards in Northern Europe. At this moment almost everyone  is familiar with  terms such as Anthropological  Climate Change or CO2. Al Gore introduced the terms to the whole world in his Oscar winning documentary. Many agree with him to a certain level but others call him a liar who wants to restrict  economic growth  and tries to steal their freedom.  On my blog I will write about extreme weather  and more specific about the question whether human activities have any influence on it, that’s also why I chose for the title: ‘’ How extreme is normal”. 

 But always remember that weather is not the same as climate. The weather can change in minutes, changing a climate takes many years. Climate is a period of at least 40 years. But it’s also true that every type of climate has his own types of weather. The differences in  weather between a  land or a sea climate are enormous.  Another thing is that  the notion of extreme is subjective. For someone who lives in the Sahara desert one small shower is extreme. But in London it isn’t.  Tornadoes are very scary things for me and when  a tornado hits London it will be an extreme event but in Oklahoma it’s quite common. And  when a tornado hits London it doesn’t prove that humans have influence on extreme weather. You need more prove than one tornado. Climate and weather  are intertwined but still distinctive phenomena  and that’s not making it much easier.

In the next post I will explain how I want to find out whether humans are making the weather more extreme.