Paper Topic Ideas

Extreme Weather

Extreme weather is definitely in the news right now. Many of us are hearing about the wildfires in Australia as well as news about warmer temperatures, droughts, and intensifying hurricanes. I started to think about how I might explore extreme weather as a paper topic.

What I did next

I searched "extreme weather" on Google and found:

• This interesting list of articles, blog posts, and other information on "extreme events" from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate.gov. I felt pretty good about this as a jumping-off point as NOAA is a well-respected scientific agency operating through the U.S. Government. While you do still have to consider bias in information you get from any government website, NOAA is the agency that provides our national daily weather forecasts and keeps climate records for the U.S. It's a pretty solid source on this subject, and good place to start. 
• On that list, I saw this blog post: "2010-2019: A landmark decade of U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters". I noticed it's very up-to-date (January 8, 2020), which made me feel good about it as a source. At the very least, this article would give me an excellent overview of the extreme weather disasters that have happened in the U.S. over the last 9 years. It also suggests the idea that extreme weather costs human beings and society a lot of money. There's a lot in here I could use to form a paper topic.
• I also thought it was worth taking a look at the Wikipedia entry that came up about Extreme weather. While I wouldn't use Wikipedia as a source, it can be a great place to find other ways of thinking about your topic. For instance, I saw the line "In recent years some extreme weather events have been attributed to human-induced global warming, with studies indicating an increasing threat from extreme weather in the future." This was a reminder that climate change has been scientifically connected with an increase in extreme weather, and that I should be looking out for that connection as I consider this paper topic and research it further. It also showed me that another way to say "climate change" could be "human-induced global warming". This could help me broaden my search.

Expanding and refining my topic

More work needs to be done at this point to make this a better paper topic. Extreme weather on its own is too broad. But based on what I've found so far, I could consider the following:

• Explore this topic just as it applies to the United States, or pick another country and explore resources about their experience of extreme weather instead. I'd still need to narrow it down from there, but focusing on a country or region is a good place to start.
• Research different points of view on extreme weather, its causes and how to handle it. One great place to explore this option is Opposing Viewpoints (Gale in Context).
• Consider the effects of extreme weather on something more specific like: food supply, travel, the economy, etc.