"As the World Warms, Extreme Rain Is Becoming Even More Extreme" Article Reflection No. 144 (7/5/2025)

Article: “As the World Warms, Extreme Rain Is Becoming Even More Extreme”

Reflection: 

In the article “As the World Warms, Extreme Rain Is Becoming Even More Extreme,” journalist Raymond Zhong describes the correlation between climate change, a warming planet, and exacerbated natural disasters. With the recent flooding in Central Texas, which increased the volume water rate to 166 cubic feet per second from 95 cubic feet per second within the span of 1.5 hours, the intensity of this natural disaster highlights the impact of fossil fuels, which warms the atmosphere into a state that can make areas more susceptible to “bigger downpours” according to the article. Zhong also notes that there are anticipated increases to extreme rain and its intensity and that the impact of global warming on natural disasters extends to regions across the state. 

Something that makes me feel so frustrated is that there’s relatively little action taken to address the root causes of climate change and natural disasters’ effects on the federal level. If the current administration wasn’t cutting down federal employees working in the climate sector, wouldn’t the weather notification system be more efficient? Wouldn’t the completion of thorough federal reports contribute to increased public awareness and advocacy for mitigating climate change? Why is it that even devastating events like the Texas floods don’t bring drastic change into how climate change and global warming is treated in federal government policy? Isn’t the government supposed to serve the people and take steps to ensure that similar things—especially more intense variations of this event—don’t occur in the future?