The unprecedented heatwaves that have swept through North America, Europe, and China this month have been "absolutely overwhelming" influenced by human-induced climate change, according to a Tuesday-published assessment by researchers.
Extreme weather has wreaked havoc on the earth all throughout the month of July. In China, the United States, and southern Europe, temperatures have broken records, causing water shortages, forest fires, and an increase in hospital admissions from heat-related illnesses.
A record-breaking temperature over the weekend forced the evacuation of hundreds of holidaymakers from the Greek island of Rhodes due to wildfires.
According to research by World Weather Attribution, a global team of scientists that studies the role played by climate change in extreme weather, the occurrences this month would have been "extremely rare" without human-induced climate change.
During a press event, Izidine Pinto of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, one of the study's authors, noted that European and North American temperatures would have been nearly unthinkable without the impacts of climate change. It was approximately 50 times more likely to occur in China than it was in the past.
The European heatwave was 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than it would have been, according to the World Weather Attribution team. Additionally, they increased the heatwave in China by 1C and the one in North America by 2C.
The heat has also caused large-scale agricultural damage and livestock losses, according to the experts, with U.S. maize and soybean harvests, Mexican cattle, southern European olives, and Chinese cotton all being seriously affected.
El Nino undoubtedly played a role in some locations' increased heat, but rising greenhouse gas levels were the main culprit, according to experts, and heatwaves will grow more frequent if emissions are not reduced.
They calculated that if average global temperatures reach 2C over pre-industrial levels, protracted spells of intense heat are expected to occur every two to five years. According to current estimates, the average temperature has increased by more than 1.1C.
At the briefing, Friederike Otto, a scientist at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change in London, said, "The events we have examined are not rare in today's climate." "From a climatological perspective, it's not surprising that these events are occurring at the same time."
As long as we continue using fossil fuels, she said, "we will see more and more of these extremes." "I don't think any science has ever presented stronger evidence for a scientific question," the author says.
Source:
- https://www.reuters.com/world/climate-change-role-july-heatwaves-overwhelming-scientists-say-2023-07-25/
- https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/extreme-heat-in-north-america-europe-and-china-in-july-2023-made-much-more-likely-by-climate-change/