INDIANA EXPERIENCES WEATHER CHANGES FIRSTHAND

by Alice Pisoni design by Novah Ulm

Climate change has been more prevalent in recent years, especially in the U.S., full of different geography zones and environments, and, consequently, more exposed to environmental changes because of their emissions.

According to the United Nations, the main cause of climate change so far has been humans. For two centuries man has been affecting the Earth by burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, gas and increasing day by day the emissions that these activities create. Burning these non-renewable resources contributes to creating the greenhouse effect, which surrounds the Earth and traps the sun’s heat, causing temperatures to rise inside of the atmosphere.

The results of these actions are evident all over the country. From the wildfires on the West Coast to more frequent hurricanes on the East Coast; from warm winters in the Midwest to snowfalls occurring less and less and out of the winter season.

Earth.org explains that the fire season in the U.S. was four months on average and has now doubled due to environmental changes. During 2020, the U.S. had one of the biggest fires in history, which lasted for over a year and destroyed parts of California, Oregon and Washington.

According to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, environmental changes have also affected the severity of hurricanes and tornadoes, as these natural disasters have increased in intensity and decreased in their speed of travel. The Midwest has always been a target for tornadoes and strong winds.

These severe wind storms and tornadoes have affected the people of the Midwest, including government teacher Jerry Mihay.

“I was not home at the time and when I got home I was in disbelief,” Mihay said.

The storm that hit Columbus affected Mihay’s surrounding areas.

“The wind went by my house and knocked down 200 feet of my fence and two trees,” Mihay said. “I was fortunate that it didn’t hit my house, but it did a lot of damage.”

Not only did Mihay have physical damage to his property, but the storm also affected him and his family in other ways.

“It cost us a lot of money,” Mihay said. “People don’t understand that insurance is very particular about what they are going to pay for and we did not receive much money for our fence. The entire fence had to be replaced, 520 feet, but because of its age they didn’t give us much money on that. It also costs money to get the trees removed.”

Other community members experienced aftereffects too, causing vital companies to be backed up.

“We lost our privacy for probably about four months because the fence company didn’t replace all the fences,” Mihay said. “They were booked up because of that storm.”

Mihay believes that climate change is a factor in these sorts of weather events..

“I believe that there is some sort of climate change occurring,” Mihay said. “Now, the source of that change is really the debatable part. Mankind has altered it, that’s the part up for debate.”

Mihay understands the impacts of climate change and weather damage, but sees the positives in the situation.

“We thought about everything that happened and we were just thankful that it didn’t damage our house and the rest,” Mihay said. “It wasn’t any fun to have it, but it could have been worse.”

Mihay expressed his understanding for those affected in the recent storm in Whiteland.

“I had a lot of empathy for those people, and they had much much worse than I did,” Mihay said.