Recently, especially this week after the news coming out of Germany, I have been really struck by the seemingly more frequent occurrence of extreme weather events in the West. I wonder if this will become the new normal?
Today we hear about flash floods killing upwards of 80 people in Germany. Just days before we had similar weather in the UK. Fortunately we escaped the devastation that has hit our neighbour, Germany.
In the weeks previous, Canada suffered an unprecedented and fatal heatwave. The sudden death numbers recorded were several times higher than what is normal for this time of year. It’s also estimated that more than 1 billion marine animals along Canada’s Pacific coast are likely to have died from the record heatwave.
The region, including parts of the US, are braced for another heatwave this week. Twelve states are already battling 71 active wildfires. In California, the problems with droughts seems to be getting so acute, political comedian Bill Maher said a few weeks back that he and others would have to move out of the state if it continued. Which is otherwise known as displacement, except, of course, most Californian residents are wealthy enough to move by choice before things get really bad, rather than being forced when disaster has destroyed their back yard. He talked about the state essentially running out of water and being hit by endless wildfires. ‘It’s not a drought if it’s happening all the time,’ he quipped. You can watch it here. This week officials said they expect all the salmon in the state’s Sacramento River to die due to the heat.
I find it all quite unnerving.
I also notice that when these stories are reported on the broadcast news in the UK – or to be honest, much outside the Guardian – the words ‘climate change’ are seldom used. But I think that connection needs to be made more explicit for people – this is the climate changing, at abnormally rapid rate.
Has the Amazon Rainforest reached a tipping point?
Then, this week, it was reported that Scientists have now figured out that parts of the Amazon rainforest is now emitting more carbon that it absorbs. Given that the Amazon is the world’s biggest carbon sink – as in it absorbs huge amounts of carbon, which is vital stop global warming – this is rather alarming. It brought to mind what I have learned about ‘tipping points’ of which the Amazon is one.
A tipping point is when a strategic carbon absorber – like the amazon – is breached or destroyed and it starts to release carbon and other harmful greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere at an extremely aggressive rate. As I understand, it would be very hard to reverse the negative impacts of such an event. I don’t know if the Amazon has reached that point yet, but it doesn’t look very good. In the past Brazil has said that rich countries should pay it to protect the Amazon rainforest. It’s obviously not a perfect solution and would need to be stringently enforced but maybe its a necessary move.
Quote of the week
I liked this Tweet from Extinction Rebellion [note: just because I include a quote or something from a particular organisation doesn’t mean I agree or advocate for everything it stands for].
It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of the challenge and just become in denial or to put it to the back of our minds and tell ourselves “There’s nothing I can really do” but the best thing we can do is demand change – every single day. Write to politicians, when you can, make more environmentally friendly choices, learn about the problem and the solutions. Many of the big players – UK, EU, China etc – have net zero targets, sure, but they will only reach them if people continue to pile on the pressure. I think history shows we can’t rely on politicians to just get on with it, unfortunately. And we can’t live outside the system, and neither should we have to.
Climate Change Site 