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Show Notes

While a single extreme weather event can wreak considerable havoc, it's becoming increasingly clear that such events often don't occur in isolation. Not Cool Episode 11 focuses on compound weather events: what they are, why they’re dangerous, and how we've failed to prepare for them. Ariel is joined by Jakob Zscheischler, an Earth system scientist at the University of Bern, who discusses the feedback processes that drive compound events, the impacts they're already having, and the reasons we've underestimated their gravity. He also explains how extreme events can reduce carbon uptake, how human impacts can amplify climate hazards, and why we need more interdisciplinary research.

Topics discussed include:

• Carbon cycle
• Climate-driven changes in vegetation
• Land-atmosphere feedbacks
• Extreme events
• Compound events and why they’re under researched
• Risk assessment
• Spatially compounding impacts
• Importance of working across disciplines
• Important policy measures

References discussed include:

• An emerging tropical cyclone–deadly heat compound hazard,
• DAMOCLES: Understanding and modeling compound climate and weather events
• Columbia University Workshop on Correlated Extremes

Climate change can change the individual variables contributing to the compound event or the dependence between them. And then there might be new types of compound events that haven't been relevant in previous conditions.

~ Jakob Zscheischler