How concerned should we be by this report?
The report states that it was not only August that was the warmest since measurements began in 1940. Also the three summer months – June, July and August – were together the hottest summer months recorded on the globe so far.
It can be difficult to take in if you’ve been to Sweden during the holidays this year, because there really haven’t been any heat records here. Not this year anyway, but last year it was 35.3 degrees in Målilla, the hottest in Sweden in 30 years.
Now, single heat records do not say much about how the Earth’s climate is warming. There is a difference between weather and climate. But when you add up the weather that has been for a longer period of time, at least 30 years, it appears that the climate on Earth has changed:
– The global average temperature has risen faster since 1970 than it has in the last 2000 years.
– The last decade has been the warmest in 125,000 years.
It is these types of calculations and measurements that are worrying. That it is a cold summer in Sweden at the same time as other parts of Europe are both burning and flooding is no consolation. There is a reason why carbon dioxide and methane are called greenhouse gases. They prevent heat from radiating from the earth, as if you were in a greenhouse.
What are the consequences of the extreme heat?
We humans are adapted to a reasonably stable climate with temperatures that our organs can handle. We have not built our communities to withstand extreme heat, torrential rain or fires. We grow our food in areas and habitats where we know the crops can grow and where there is access to water. These are just a few examples of how dependent we are on a “normal” climate.
Extreme heat causes problems in many ways. When farming is no longer possible, people have to move to new places to survive. According to UNHCR, more than 20 million people flee each year due to drought, fires, floods and other climate-related difficulties. And the forecast is that there will be more climate refugees.
Is there any evidence that we should be able to reverse this negative trend?
Although the world’s countries have negotiated since 1995 to reduce emissions of fossil carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, emissions continue to increase. During the corona pandemic, they decreased but now continue to increase again.
At the same time, many individual countries are pushing to reduce emissions, and awareness of the seriousness of the problem is increasing, not least when countries are hit by extreme weather. The EU countries have recently adopted a joint climate law with the goal that the EU’s joint emissions should be reduced by 55 percent by the year 2030.
In addition, the business community sees that it can pay to be at the forefront of developing technical solutions where carbon dioxide emissions will be zero or at least significantly lower than today. So of course it is possible to reverse the trend.