Weather - homework help

[Chiburger]

Help, please. I'm supposed to write about how the weather has affected humans in a historic point of view and how it's changed the last 20, 50, 100 years... ozon ... greenhouse ... blah blah blah, I'm in a terrible mood can you guys help me?

*dies-of-that-feeling-when-you're-just-sick-everything-and-feel-really-notsome-and-the-least-thing-you-wanna-do-is-a-homework-about-weather-for-tomorrow*

[somwhere in the shadows]

you could talk about how global warming has effected people by forcing them to buy air conditioners if they live in hot places like texas and arizona. this is true, the National Geographic mentioned in a global warming article that the air conditioner buisness is booming in the south.

you could also talk about heat related deaths and illnesses, for example the rise of malaria and how global warming creates a more favorable climate for malarial mosquitos to breed in north america.

then theirs tornados and things that have supposedly been caused by warming, but that's kinda iffy. why not talk about how coastal communities worldwide are being effected by rising sea levels? thats about all i can think of...

[sabelmouse]

yes bangladesh for instance might disapear completly.

[Geekgumbo]

Weather is also more than just the greenhouse effect. Consider how temperature affects how buildings are designed, what food is grown, or what clothing is worn. In the 1300s Europe had what is called "the little ice age" where temperatures were noticibly cooler than before. Think about the natural disasters of an area- hurricanes, ice storms, tornados, volcanos (is a volcano eruption a weather effect? i don't know) and how that shapes the human experience. In upstate New York (for instance) most homes have a mud room, or closed in porch that people take their snow gear off before entering a house. In the south porches are open to the weather. This in turn affects the sociability of people. I'm more likely to wave Hello to my neighbor if I'm out on a porch drinking my coffee than if I'm huddled waiting out a storm.

[Cynically Yours]

weather as affected people throughout history. The first settled areas were chosen because the weather was fairly mild and people could sustain themselves without worrying about extreme weather such as Greece and the Mesopotamia area.

Around 1000 CE Greenland was discovered by the Viking civilization and there are some theories as to why it was inhabited and then abandooned over a couple hundred years. One theory is weather. Around 1000 CE there is evidence of slight global warming allowing for people to settle in the glacial encrusted area. It revealed green space in the fjords and allowed mild enough weather for farming and animals. However the settlements were abandoned quite suddenly. Using glacial melting/freezing patterns they found that the climate cooled again. Now the Vikings wore European dress for the most part meaning majority of the clothes were made of cotton and other natural fibres so they may have not been able to have survived the cold. So instead of trying to stick it out they left to go back to Iceland and other scandinavian countries.

Weather Patterns also affect culture. In European History around the 1800s there is a time coined the "Little Ice Age" meaning the climate in western europe was going through a rather large cold snap. You can see this with cutlural aspects that developed in that era, such as the garments that were developed that were quite thick and covered every inch of the body. They were able to wear such things because of the weather ie they wouldn't die of heat stroke.

In current times there are different cultural rituals that are specific to different areas of the world. In warmer places like Mexica they have Siesta's which are basically naps in the afternoon (the hottest time of the day) In northern climates they have specific sports that take place in the winter like Ice Fishing, a sport developed to keep hunting throughout the winter. Weather also affected language, there was so much snow in northern Canada that the Inuit came up with over 250 words for different types of Snow.

Weather and climates play a big role in how we as humans develop and identify with the world around us.

gee i hope that wasn't to long sorry O.o this is what being a histoy major does to me