The end of summer is here and September has just begun.
I hope that you enjoyed your holidays and had a great time in the company of family and friends and that you were able to rest and chill!
Both in my home country, Spain, and where I currently live: the Austrian Alps, this summer has been very typical when it comes to the weather. Well, in fact not just this summer but all around the calendar in the last few years, we have noticed extreme weather changes and more dramatic consequences: for example, we have often jumped from extreme heat close to 40°C one day, to unusually cold temperatures, around 10°C the next.
This is something that concerns me. Have you noticed what happened in our world during the summer?
Our ecosystem experienced a series of extreme weather events. Unfortunately, what we just faced is a preview of what will happen more frequently in the next few years, bringing increasingly devastating consequences, especially if we don’t do anything to prevent it.
Here you can find a recap of which events hit our planet, and, of course, us as humans too:
🌡️ DROUGHT AND HEAT WAVES
In many countries, the last months of June and July were the hottest months ever recorded.
In Siberia, until now one of the coldest places on earth, ground temperatures even reached 48°C.
A shocking piece of news: summers in the Northern Hemisphere could last nearly six months by the year 2100!
Do you like summer? Of course, everybody does, but would you be happy to experience drastic temperature changes and be unable to appreciate spring or autumn anymore? The biggest issue is the fact that harsh changes of Earth’s seasons carry risks for the environment and human health. Sectors that are dependent strongly on certain temperatures and precipitation levels such as agriculture, energy, and tourism would be particularly affected. And because seasons dictate the life cycles of plants and animals, climate change could disrupt species’ ability to adapt.
As temperatures increase, so does the incidence of illness and death. For example, extreme heat kills more Americans each year, than hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and lightning combined.
🔥WILDFIRES
This summer officials found fires along the western coasts of the USA and Canada, across the Mediterranean, and in Russia, where the forestry protection agency has recorded about 240 fires!
Firefighters in Mediterranean nations including Italy, Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans attempted to contain these horrible forest fires for weeks. Turkey alone has suffered 2,105 forest fires since January, and smoke still lingers incessantly in some areas.
Of course, these fires cause a loss of biodiversity and extinction of plants and animals, loss of natural regeneration, and a reduction in forest cover. This results in an increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and of course, global warming.
Global warming itself can be the trigger of this phenomenon too. As you can see, it is a never-ending destructive cycle.
🌊FLOODS
Floods have killed more than 200 people in Europe this summer alone.
Days of rainfall led to severe flooding in the central Chinese province of Henan. The monsoon in India was more severe than ever. In Myanmar and Bangladesh, villages housing Rohingya refugees were flooded. African countries are also battling severe floods.
All around the globe, many people died and hundreds of thousands lost their homes to these natural disasters.
The heavier rains cause rivers, and lakes to overflow, which not only damages life and properties but also contaminates drinking water, creates dangerous material spills and promotes mold infestation and unhealthy air. A warmer, wetter world is also a precursor for food and water-borne illnesses and disease-carrying insects…
↪️ WHY ARE THESE CLIMATE-CHANGE EVENTS HAPPENING OVER THE SUMMER ?
Establishing a direct causal link between an individual case of flood, fire, or storm and the broader climate situation is a research field that is still evolving — and something that is still hard to investigate practically.
A lot of factors can influence a natural disaster, including local weather conditions, the shape of the landscape, human choices… Even without climate change, some catastrophic events would occur. But the fact that climate change is making extreme weather more frequent and intense is a “sure connection”, says Peter Stott, an expert in climate attribution at the UK’s Met Office.
NOAA reports that June this year is the fifth-warmest June in the 142-year global climate record. Evidence shows that 2000 to 2009 was hotter than any other decade in at least the past 1,300 years. This warming is altering the earth’s climate system, including its land, atmosphere, oceans, and ice in various ways.
If you find these Reports related to climate change interesting, you can’t miss my last article about the UN Report.
Climate scientists say with every 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature, the air can hold water longer, leading to a hot and dry condition in North America. But it also leads to an increase in huge rainfall in Europe.
Today’s scientists point to climate change as “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.” If you think that we are alone in this struggle, and what we do here won’t cause any harm on the other side of the world, you are wrong! We are all indeed connected.
We think it’s time to become imperfect warriors for our environment and pay attention to small changes to be made in our daily life to protect our world! Soon you will find easy tips to help fight climate change from the comfort of your home!
We leave you with this quote:
“In a world of more than seven billion people, each of us is a drop in the bucket. But with enough drops, we can fill any bucket.”
David Suzuki