Hurricane Pauline - Research Paper Example

Upon making landfall, hurricanes bring strong surges of water causing flooding and destroying whatever comes in its way.

            Hurricanes have been affecting many parts of the world throughout history. Such a disastrous and still considered one of the strongest hurricanes of the south pacific coasts was a hurricane, Pauline. Hurricane Pauline struck the south pacific coast on October 5, 1997. The winds were at a speed of 135 miles per hour, enough to shatter everything that came in its path and take more than 200 lives in the process. Hurricane Pauline affected a large area of Mexico and dissipated on October 10, 1997.

            While hurricanes are considered to have a history as old as the existence of this very world, their frequency has increased in the recent past, an important point for the rapidly growing world to give thought to. Are we humans responsible for their increased frequency or is it just nature showing its wrath upon us? Many researchers and scientists have raised questions on the progress of the world and global warming. There have been debates concerning the relation of global warming and the increased number of hurricanes than ever.

            Indeed some of the researchers have been able to prove that global warming has somewhat a role in this increased number of hurricanes and their disastrous effect. It has also been proposed and later proved that climate change has a major role in the power dissipation of the Atlantic system of hurricanes. These climate changes either natural or not have an important effect on the increased activity of hurricanes in the Atlantic region (Emanuel, 2007). It has also been told that human activities in the Atlantic area have been shown to cause detectable or undetectable changes that might have been leading to increased hurricane activity in that region. Hurricane Pauline that destroyed cities and took hundreds of lives was followed by Hurricane Katrina and many others in the later years specifically in areas where an annual rise in temperature was recorded showing the role of global warming directly and humans indirectly in causing hurricanes.