As soon as you hear about changes in the environment, you might be quick to point to global warming as the culprit; however, we really need to take a more comprehensive look at what are reasons behind current natural disasters and strange weather patterns. Doing so will allow us to see that yes, global warming is a factor, but it is not the only reason.
As you probably have already guessed, many of the recent natural disasters and strange weather patterns have been caused due to global warming.
When global warming occurs, everything starts to melt. The sea levels rise and could consequently cause flooding in areas which had never experienced floods before. However, if you know about the water cycle, more water in the seas and other bodies of water means that more evaporation is occurring. Therefore, the water cycle is pretty much expedited and rainfalls occur more often.
Another seemingly obvious effect of global warming is that the planet heats up. As the temperatures rise, the entire environment gets hotter. Problems such as draughts and frequent wild fires occur as a result. Remember, these are only the impacts of global warming on the weather. There are certainly other effects to consider as well.
So much talk exists today about how we are going to help the environment, so it would be a surprise if you did not realize that the environment is in trouble. Environments form themselves in ways which are suitable for the area and the life that lives there.
Deforestation and overgrazing are harmful activities that can lead to problems after severe waterfall or mudslides. The earth does not have its natural components that helped to block off these particles sliding down the landscape. Instead, barren land exists allowing for the free flow of pretty much anything. When farm land or other regions rich in flora are turned into some sort of hard surface, they too lose their ability to absorb water.
If you have ever heard of Pangea, you know that the earth has changed its appearance many times in the history of the earth. Long ago, the seven continents were all bound together as one. We refer to that entity as Pangea.
Over time, the layers in the earth simply move around. For example, when we look at earthquakes, we might think that they are happening more frequently. However, our opinion of earthquakes could very well be influenced by all of the other environmental activity and problems occurring. In actuality though, such activities as earthquakes or volcanoes are often the result of natural processes that occur throughout the lifetime of the planet. We just happen to be hyper aware of them because of all of the other issues.
Deciding the reasons or whether there are more natural disasters and strange weather patterns is difficult. If you were to sit down and watch the nightly news, you would think that everyone is being murdered and assaulted. The news and the rest of the media tend to play up "bad" events, and cause sorts of hysteria in general. You need to get past the pop media scene if you really want answers to these big questions. Read up on a scientific journal where the focus of the work is to find answers and provide information, not to entertain an audience in order to generate profit.