Annotated Literature Review

1) Warmer sea temperatures, due to the effects of Climate Change/Global Warming, are
contributing to more extreme meteorological events, such as increased cyclone activity within
the Atlantic.
2) Of the Five Axioms of Sustainability, the one that is the most relevant to my problem
statement is Axiom 5, which states that Sustainability requires that substances introduced into
the environment from human activities be minimized and rendered harmless to biosphere
functions.
Concept Table
Concept
Categories

Climate Change

Geographic
Impact of
Hurricanes
-Global Warming
-States
-Greenhouse Gasses situated in
-Greenhouse Effect the
-Ozone Depletion
Atlantic
Coastal
Region

Synonyms

Human Impacts

Economic
Impacts

Alternatives/Possible
Solutions

-Rate of burning
fossil fuels
-Deforestation
-(less amount of
trees to absorb
CO2)

-Damage to
Agriculture &
Forestry
-Damage to
Infrastructure
-Hurricane
Katrina?
-Hurricane
Sandy?

-Develop stronger
levy systems
-Stronger
enforcement of
environmental
regulations
concerning fossil
fuels

Search Database Table

a. (Meteorology or Atmospheric Science) and (Hurricanes or Cyclones)

b. (Climate Change or Global Warming) and (Meteorology or Atmospheric
Science)
c. (Climate Change or Global Warming) and (Hurricanes or Cyclones)
d. (Climate Change and Cyclones)
e. (Global Warming and Hurricanes)

Search
Statement
a

Database Used
Summon

Summon

Number of
results retrieved
185,759

668,717

Notes about
search results
Too many
results obtained.
Many of them
seem too broad.
Too many
results. Many of
them seem to
focus solely on
Climate Change

Number of items
save to a folder
0

Summon

Summon

Summon

294,174

88,804

69,989

Too many
results. Results
are similar to
previous search.
Still a lot of
results, but more
relevant to my
topic.
Definitely fewer
results than what
I initially started
with, and more
are relevant to
my topic.

When I first started my research, I was obtaining too many results with my combined
search statements. For my last two search statements, I narrowed them down by only
including and, and obtained fewer and more relevant results to my topic. I still plan on
finding other sources to help with my research as well as other sources that help shed
light on my other pathways and secondary concepts.

Jiang, J., and W. Perrie. 2008. Climate change effects on North Atlantic cyclones. Journal of
Geophysical Research 113. American Geophysical Union.
This text specifically focuses on hurricanes and cyclones that track towards the Mid-Atlantic
region, which is similar to the region that I am trying to focus on. This text is mostly research
driven with mathematical data to back it up. What they seem to suggest is that intensities of each
individual storm depend on the storm structure as much as they do on rising sea surface
temperatures.

Knutson , T., J. McBride, J. Chan, K. Emanuel, G. Holland, C. Landsea, I. Held, J. Kossin , A.

K. Srivastava, and M. Sugi. 2010. Tropical cyclones and climate change. Nature
Geoscience 3:157163. Nature Publishing Group.
This article doesnt focus on a specific region, but rather the relationship between cyclone
formation and climate change as a whole. The authors include graphs to back up their
conclusions. They do point out that tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic can be modelled by
increasing SSTs, which helps support my argument.

Landsea, C. W. 2005. Meteorology: Hurricanes and global warming. Nature 438:E11E12.

Nature Publishing Group.

While I continue to search for sources that relate to my topic, I come to find that the issue of
climate change/global warming leading to increased cyclone activity is very debatable, and this
source come to no exception. Landsea seems to refute all of Emanuels research data, saying
that the figures arent exact. Emanuel also offers a response to Landseas claim that his figures
arent exact. I will include this article as a contrasting viewpoint to offer different sides to the
topic.

Mendelsohn, R., K. Emanuel, S. Chonabayashi, and L. Bakkensen. 2012. The impact of climate
change on global tropical cyclone damage. Nature Climate Change 2:205209. Nature
Publishing Group.
This article attempts to provide a framework to combine economics and atmospheric science.
While the extent of hurricane damage and cost has increased, it is not attributed to more intense
hurricanes. Rather, it is due to a higher standard of living. Since this article deals with
economics, I will dig deeper to find more information that relates to my secondary concept of
economic impacts.

Michaels, P. J., P. C. Knappenberger, and R. E. Davis. 2006. Sea-surface temperatures and

tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin. Geophysical Research Letters 33. American
Geophysical Union.
This article also focuses on the Atlantic region as the region of interest for increased cyclone
activity. The authors also bring into account the idea of SSTs being directly involved in
contributing to the increase of cyclone activity. However, they offer contrasting viewpoints by
pointing out that their findings highlight the complex nature of hurricane development and
weaken the notion of a simple cause-and-effect relationship between rising SST and stronger
Atlantic hurricanes.

Mooney, C. 2007. Storm world: hurricanes, politics, and the battle over global warming. First
edition. Harcourt Publishers,U.S., Orlando.
Mooney writes this book to answer the question Are we responsible for making hurricanes even
bigger monsters than they already are? This is essentially the same question that I am trying to
answer through further research of my topic. This book also brings into account the opinions of
other researchers in the field, including some that are listed in this annotated bibliography.

Schiermeier, Q. 2005. Hurricane link to climate change is hazy. Nature 437:461.

This article reiterates the fact that the question of whether or not global warming is contributing
to increased cyclone activity has split the research community. However, it does mention that

while the frequency of cyclone formation has not increased, the intensity is increasing. This
article also brings back the contrasting viewpoints of Landsea and Emanuel.

Semmler, T., S. Varghese, R. McGrath, P. Nolan, S. Wang, P. Lynch, and C. ODowd. 2008.
Regional climate model simulations of North Atlantic cyclones: frequency and intensity
changes. Climate Research 36:116. Inter-Research Science Center.
This article focuses on the Atlantic, specifically North Atlantic, region, which is what I also plan
on focusing on as well. The authors also ask the question Can we expect to see a higher
frequency of tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic in a warming climate? This is very similar
to the question that I am also researching.

Trenberth, K. 2005. Uncertainty in hurricanes and global warming. Science 308:17531754.

This article offers interesting viewpoints to whether warmer SSTs are contributing to increased
cyclone activity. Trenberth mentions that there are other factors to take into consideration when
hurricanes form, such as a strong or weak El Nio. He does agree that human influenced
environmental changes are evident in hurricane regions.

Walsh, K. 2004. Tropical cyclones and climate change: unresolved issues. Climate Research
27:7783. Inter-Research Science Center.
Walsh mentions that while presently, there might not be noticeable changes in tropical cyclone
characteristics, in a warming world, there will be detectable changes of intensities of cyclones in
the Atlantic by the year 2050. He highlights that there is a discernible influence of human
activities on the global climate. He essentially agrees that in a warmer world, the intensity of
tropical cyclones will increase, while it might be later in the distant future.