Traditionally, the earth has four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. But two scientists Felicia Liu from the University of York and Thomas Smith from the London School of Economics published a study that suggests that the earth now has two new seasons: haze season and garbage season. These two new seasons are categorized as anthropogenic, which is caused by humans.
The haze season occurs between June and October in Southeast Asia due to the burning of peatlands in Indonesia and Malaysia for agricultural purposes. At the time of writing, the air quality in Malaysia is moderate (API 46-77). Because it has been going on for decades and occurs at the same time every year, it can be categorized as a season.
The garbage season occurs between November and March in Bali. During the garbage season, garbage will arrive on the Balinese coast with it being carried by the monsoon winds. Every time this season arrives, the Balinese authorities increase beach cleaning activities to prevent it from affecting tourism activities.
In addition to the two new seasons, the four existing seasons have also undergone changes, creating syncopated and arrhythmic seasons. In syncopated seasons, summers and winters are warmer and forest fires are more active in Northern Europe.
Arrhythmic seasons, on the other hand, occur when spring arrives earlier, winter arrives later and the typhoon season is longer. Last year, the syncopated season caused Japan to experience a heat wave that left Mount Fuji snowless in late October.
The study of the new seasons and changes in natural seasons is published in the Sage Journal.