Hotter summers, milder winters, more extreme weather events. Climate data has never been more alarming than this year. On opening day Cop27annual climate conference of the UN, organized in Egypt, in Sharm El Sheikh, the UN published a report on the environmental situation on our planet and describes a bleak picture, where Target of curbing global warming to 1.5°C ‘barely achievable’. According to a report by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the past eight years have been the warmest on record, leading to sea level rise and glacier melt to new highs with dramatic consequences for some of the poorest countries, but not only.
“All too often those who are least responsible for climate change suffer the most, but even well-prepared societies have been hit by extreme events this year,” WTO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas told The Guardian. “The more warming, the worse the consequences. Right now we have such high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere that the goal of the Paris Agreement is barely achievable. It’s too late for many glaciers [e] sea level rise is a long-term and serious threat to many millions of coastal and low-lying states”And this is just the beginning. Among the recent catastrophic events, the report cites the devastating floods in Pakistan that have killed at least 1,700 people and displaced 7.9 million. cyclones and heavy rains hit South Africa, especially Madagascar, and Hurricane Ian caused massive loss of life in Cuba and Florida, China experienced one of the longest heatwaves on record this summer, as did the UK, where the thermometer read 40° C, which posed the problem of air conditioning for its residents for the first time. Negative records are also for the Rhine, Loire and Danube, which recorded a critically low level of their waters. A long, hot summer, the longest in 40 years, in East Africa, where rainfall has been below average for four consecutive seasons.
“Records are being broken across our planet as various parts of the climate system begin to break down. explains Professor Mike Meredith of the British Antarctic Survey. The loss of ice is of particular concern as the impact on people, society and the economy is enormous. If this doesn’t focus the minds of world leaders on COP27, I don’t know what will.” According to the data, about 19 million people are currently suffering from a food crisis due to climate change, and this number will increase. Are these numbers enough to stir the conscience of world leaders? Maybe. In the meantime, China and India, two of the most polluting countries in the world, are the first to be absent from the climate conference.
Source: Elle