[suneel112]

I am only a HS student, but concerning the freak weather we have had this summer, I think it is a good time to start pinpointing problems and, most importantly, solutions.

I think that global warming and greenhouse gases have something to do with it. One bad hurricane every few years or so is normal, but four bad ones in a single year is just insane. Global warming not only causes hurricanes, but also bad sea storms, snow and ice storms, flooding, drought, famine, coral bleachings, etc...

I recently listened to a lecture at Purdue, given by Prof. Richard E. Smalley, a Nobel Laureate who is currently at Rice University in Houston. He talked about the energy problem, and how MOST (over 60 percent) of our energy used today comes from fossil fuels. He mentioned that fossil fuels create pollution, but he focused more on the energy and sustainability aspect of fossil fuels.

Indeed, it DOES affect the environment in disastrous ways. Fossil Fuels produce Carbon Dioxide, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet and the seas. It also alters the flow of the seas so the warm seas can't "vent" their heat through warm currents. The only other way to "vent" heat from the oceans is for water to evaporate (ie the first stage of forming a hurricane).
Besides adding heat, it alters natural wind cycles that bring drought to some regions, and flood to others.

But we are (or will be) engineers. We have the ability to stop the problem. We have the brain power to invent new sources of energy without the environmental and political costs of fossil fuels. We have the ability to develop microorganisms that will clean up polluted sites. It is time to think about the environment, how to save it, and how to use energy without harming it. Because if we harm it, it will destroy us.