#13 Reflection

It may have only been a short 3 months, but I already feel a sense of nostalgia looking back over the weeks. For me, this was far more than a journey of “getting to know my topic well”. I started out thinking I would be able to explore different weather events every week, the “exciting stuff” like tornadoes and hurricanes. By the third week, I realised this would not work. I was stressed and worried that I would have no strong thread, no idea what was actually going on in the weather world.

A month in is where it all changed for me. I didn’t know that from sending one email to Dr.Otto that I would spend the next 10 weeks inspired and hopeful. I found an outstanding yet humbling sense of community in the extreme weather world. I had no idea that my entire source of inspiration for the coming posts wouldn’t actually be scrolling through google-scholar. Instead I was following up scholar twitter retweets, following leads in newspaper articles, and for me, the most amazing part, was the enormous amounts of help I received from the scientists and campaigners themselves who were beyond willing to answer my many questions, and throughout my academic years I have never been involved in a project so current and interactive as this.   

This isn’t just something that has helped me with my blog, but it was this encouraging sense of willingness from scholars that actually gave me the confidence to ask scientists studying in universities abroad for additional data-sets for my dissertation. And similarly, they responded with such kindness and encouragement, with data-sets that added great clarity to my dissertation.

I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to write this blog, and I must give an enormous amount of credit to Friederike Otto, who opened my eyes to many of the different up-and coming fields in event attribution and linked me to many recently published articles. 

Taking a look at my original question :

We are changing the intensity and frequency of extreme events, and although some of these events are still not so well understood, the current science suggests the impacts for many are only going to get worse. The horrendous weather extremes we are experiencing right now are the product of a past climate. The climate change we are producing today will be delivered to us in extreme weather events we have yet to experience.

However, from my blog posts, I hope what is clear is that progress is rapid. It seems one of the most important parts of this progress is derived from how we think about extreme weather. It is through these different lenses, different phrasings of research questions, that different methods and analyses are being produced giving light to answers once deemed impossible to find. The lens is narrowing, no longer just a case of understanding the impacts of extreme weather, but a magnifying glass is being produced to put the spotlight on the specific causes of individual events. We are now beginning to see who is responsible, and who is in need of great help. I am ‘extreme’-ly optimistic about the future, and I do believe this is a huge step forward for environmental governance. 

I really hope you have enjoyed this journey as much as I have, and keep your eyes peeled for more posts to come.

Stay freaky,

Louise