Just as the European Union announced plans to spend billions of euros to curb climate change, huge clouds gathered in Germany Unleash an unprecedented storm with nearby countries, causing death and destruction.
Despite sufficient warnings, politicians and weather forecasters were shocked by the heavy precipitation that caused flash floods. The lush rolling hills of Western Europe claimed the lives of more than 150 people this week.
Climate scientists say that the link between extreme weather and global warming is unmistakable, and it is undeniable that the urgency of taking measures to address climate change is undeniable.
Scientists are still not sure whether climate change has caused flooding, but they insist that it will certainly exacerbate extreme weather from the western United States and Canada to Siberia to the Rhine region in Europe.
“There is a clear link between the occurrence of extreme precipitation and climate change,” Professor Wim Thiery of the University of Brussels said on Friday.
Stefan Rahmstorf, professor of marine physics at the University of Potsdam, said of the recent high temperature records set by the United States and Canada, “Some are too extreme, and they are almost impossible without global warming. “
Sir David King, Chairman of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group, said that putting them together, “These are the victims of the climate crisis: we will only see these extreme weather events become more frequent.”
Diederik Samsom is the head of the cabinet of the European Commission. Behind this week’s large-scale proposal is to spend billions of dollars and force industry to carry out drastic reforms to help reduce global warming gas emissions by 55% this decade. This week The disaster is a warning story.
“People are being washed away in Germany… as well as Belgium and the Netherlands. We are experiencing climate change,” he said on a conference call with the European Policy Center think tank. “A few years ago, you had to point to the future or a distant point on Earth to talk about climate change. It is happening now—here.”
Climate scientists pointed out two specific factors that contributed to this week’s disaster.
First, for every 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature, the humidity in the air increases by 7%. It can hold water for longer, which can lead to drought, but once it is released, it can also lead to an increase in intensive and heavy rainfall.
Another decisive factor is the tendency of storms to hover in a place much longer than usual, thereby dumping more and more rainfall in smaller areas of the world. Scientists say that warming is also a contributing factor. A jet of strong wind nearly 10 kilometers high helps to determine the weather in Europe and is affected by the temperature difference between the tropics and the Arctic.
However, as Europe warms – Scandinavia is currently experiencing an unusual heat wave – the rapids have weakened, causing their winding routes to stop, sometimes for several days, Thierry said.
He said that this phenomenon is also obvious in Canada, and it contributes to the “hot dome” that causes the temperature to rise to 50 degrees Celsius.
“This caused the heavy rain we saw in Western Europe,” he said.
Even if greenhouse gas emissions are substantially curbed in the coming decades, the amount of carbon dioxide and other heating gases already in the atmosphere means that extreme weather will become more likely to occur.
Experts say that this phenomenon will hit those areas that are not ready for it particularly severely.
“We need to make our built environment-buildings, outdoor spaces, cities-more adaptable to climate change,” said Lamia Messari-Becker, an engineering professor at Siegen University.
Enstrom, the chief climate and geoscientist of the reinsurance giant Munich Re, said that those who do not adapt will face greater risks of loss of life and property.
“The events around today and yesterday give us a hint that we need to do better in preparing for these types of events,” he said. “The incident itself is not unexpected, but the order of magnitude may surprise some people.”
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Frank Jordans in Berlin and David Keyton in Paris contributed to this report.
© 2021 Canadian Press
