Unit 17 Weather, Climate and People

Objectives

• Discuss how weather and climate affect people positively or negatively.

Positive Effects of Weather and Climate on people

• Energy• Farming• Tourism

Energy

• Man can harness solar energy and wind energy.• Solar panels on the roofs of home will trap

solar energy and convert the energy into electricity for heating water.

• In some countries, solar energy is used to replace petrol.

• Wind is used to turn wind turbines to produce electricity.

Turbine Solar panel

Farming

• Climate determines the amount and the type of crops that can be grown.

• For example, in tropical climate, farmers are able to grow more than one crop a year as there is high temperature and high rainfall throughout the year.

Tropical fruits

Tourism

• Tropical island with hot and sunny such as Maldives attract tourists from countries experiencing winter.

• Tourists from warmer countries like to visit Switzerland to ski Swiss Alps.

Maldive Island

Swiss Alps

Negative Effects of Weather and Climate on people

• Too much water• Too little water• Extreme heat and cold• Extreme winds

Too much water

• Extreme weather like prolonged heavy rain can cause rivers to overflow their banks and cause flood.

• Buildings, transportation networks and farmlands are damaged.

• Houses may be swept away and lives may be lost.

Floods

Too little water

• Droughts occur when there are prolonged and abnormally dry periods of insufficient rainfall.

• Rivers, reservoirs and lakes may dry up.• Crop failure may lead to famines.• Eg: Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Drought

Extreme heat and cold

• Heat waves that occur in summer may cause bushfires and kill lives and destroy farmlands.

• Cold waves are caused when frigid polar winds blow into a certain regions. Temperature fall drastically to below 0◦C. People who are not properly protected may be vulnerable to pneumonia, bronchitis and frost bite.

Heat waves

Extreme winds• Severe storms such as hurricanes and

tornadoes generate strong winds that cause deaths, injuries, crop and property destruction.

• Tornadoes and Hurricanes occur every summer in USA.

• Continuous heavy rainfall result in severe flooding that cause greater damage.

Tornadoes

Hurricanes

Questions to ponder…

• Why do you think there is an increase in hurricanes and tornadoes?

• What is the main difference between a hurricane and a tornado?