Raphael ThysPhoto by Hansjörg Keller on Unsplash
Over the past few months, the impact of climate change has become excruciatingly obvious. Yet scientists are warning us that this is just the beginning, and over the next few decades, we will witness a climate disaster like no other, impacting everything from our health, our economies, our food supplies, and potentially even our societies. Yet, the political world doesn’t seem to be heeding these warnings, and a gaping rift between these two great forces of humanity is growing. If this peculiar divide isn’t fixed, then our terrible is sealed. Let me explain.
The World Weather Attribution group (WWA) uses peer-reviewed methods and papers to figure out if extreme weather events are caused by climate change. A recent study of theirs looked into the current heatwaves around the world. Using weather data collected up to the 18 of July, and several advanced computer models, they compared how the weather of today is being influenced by climate change compared to how it would be influenced if we had the climate of the pre-industrial 1800s. This study found that the deadly heatwaves currently gripping the US and Europe were 950 to 4,400 times more likely to happen thanks to climate change. Meanwhile, they discovered that the recent heatwave in China was made 50 times more likely.
In other words, the horrific heat threatening lives and kickstarting wildfires across Europe and North America would have been “virtually impossible” without man-made global warming.
But, we have only experienced around 1.1 degrees Celsius of global warming so far. Scientists are predicting that within the next few years, we will surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius and will go on to experience a mind-blowing 3 degrees Celsius of warming with our current measures in place. This is why one of the co-authors of the WWA’s paper said, “it could well be that this is what will be a cool summer in the future unless we rapidly stop burning fossil fuels,” and went on to say, “This is not the new normal. As long as we keep burning fossil fuels, we will see more and more of these extremes.”
Scientists and analysts are desperately ringing the warning bell, trying to warn us of the…