This Is What Climate Change Looks Like. And It’s Terrifying

Here’s The Proof. This is What Climate Change Looks Like. (And It’s Even Worse Than We Thought).

 

what climate change looks like, wildfire in Greece.
Photo by AP / Noah Berger

July 2018

Of course you’ve been reading about the terrible wildfires in Greece, where so many people lost their lives, the seemingly-never-ending wildfires in California, flooding then a heatwave in Japan, wildfires in the Arctic circle, and the massive heatwaves across Europe and North America.

Certainly, it’s summer, so you expect (or hope for) heat – but not this much. Do you recall ever seeing so much coverage of the weather on every news channel? I don’t.

Well now, one of the world’s leading climate scientists says that the extreme heatwaves and wildfires wreaking havoc around the globe are “the face of climate change“. This is what climate change looks like – and the impacts of global warming are now “playing out in real time” he said.

Prof Michael Mann, at Penn State University added that we would not see these extremes if it weren’t for climate change. “The impacts of climate change are no longer subtle. We are seeing our predictions come true,” he added. “As a scientist that is reassuring, but as a citizen of planet Earth, it is very distressing to see that, as it means we have not taken the necessary action.”

Other senior scientists agree the link is clear and unambiguous. This is what climate change looks like, and it is “unfolding before our eyes”, said Prof Rowan Sutton, at the University of Reading.

this is what climate change looks like - graph

Scientists predict that events even worse than current one will strike every other year by the 2040s.

“The logic that climate change will do this is inescapable – the world is becoming warmer, and so heatwaves like this are becoming more common,” said Friederike Otto, at the University of Oxford and part of the World Weather Attribution (WWA) consortium that produced this latest analysis. “What was once regarded as unusually warm weather will become commonplace” she said. “So this is something that society can and should prepare for. But equally there is no doubt that we can and should constrain the increasing likelihood of all kinds of extreme weather events by restricting greenhouse gas emissions as sharply as possible.”

climate change report

Are We Prepared for What Climate Change Looks Like?

How will we cope with the extremes? How many countries have homes, hospitals, schools and transport that can deal with extreme weather?

  • Houses in many countries are designed for cold weather – but not for hot. In the UK for example, one in five homes dangerously overheats during heatwaves .
  • Many countries report heat-related deaths – and these will increase as we find out what climate change looks like.
  • Can hospitals and care homes cope with extreme conditions? Sick and elderly people are especially vulnerable.
  • What about schools – can they keep our children cool and healthy?
  • Scandinavian countries are trying to cope with a surge in heat-related problems in offices.
  • this is what climate change looks like - melting roads
    Melting roads leave cars covered in bitumen. Via 7 News

    Can the railways in your country cope with extreme heat, or will the tracks buckle?

  • What about the roads and highways where you live – can their surface survive extended heatwaves?
  • Heatwaves are also economically costly, particularly due to lost working days as a result of transport problems, and of course, deaths.
  • Air conditioning use peaks in hot weather, putting strain on the electrical grid. This causes further climate change if power is supplied by fossil fuels, and outages put people at risk of heat-stroke.
  • Staple foods such as meat, wheat and potatoes amongst others, could be in short supply, pushing up consumer prices.
  • And of course, higher temperature often equal water shortages. We can’t live without water. Rationing and even water refugees are likely.

Has This Happened Before?

Of course there are extreme weather events – they’ve been happening throughout our history. But global warming is making them more extreme – and more frequent.

It’s similar to the link between smoking tobacco and lung cancer. Not every cancer is caused by smoking, but we’ve proved that smoking greatly increases the risk. And it is the same with climate change.

Can We Do Anything to Slow Climate Change?

It is not too late to make the significant cuts needed in greenhouse gas emissions, said Mann, because the impacts progressively worsen as global warming increases.

“It is not going off a cliff, it is like walking out into a minefield,” he said. “So the argument it is too late to do something would be like saying: ‘I’m just going to keep walking’. That would be absurd – you reverse course and get off that minefield as quick as you can. It is really a question of how bad it is going to get.”

climate change report cover

 

Start making a difference today – download your FREE report on the 3 big things that you can do to help slow climate change. (Spoiler alert:- recycling is great, but it won’t make a big difference).

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What do you think? Are you seeing climate change extremes where you live? Let me know in the comments below.

Warm regards,

signature Clare

 

 

 

P.S.  Don’t forget to download your free climate change report here!

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climate change, climate change causes more frequent extreme weather events, climate change is happening now, climate change is here now, global warming, what climate change looks like


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