by NEW YORK (AP) – For years, scientists have warned that the continued burning of oil, gas and coal would have dire climate consequences. Those impacts are felt around the world.
The extreme weather is driven by climate change
By and large, the last few years have been brutal for the climate — and for the people and other living things within it. Around the globe, heat records have been broken. Floods have soaked Pakistan, Libya and many other countries, in torrents that have destroyed property and claimed lives. Powerful hurricanes have devastated the usual land targets, such as the east coasts of India and the United States. And strange once-in-a-generation events happened, like a tropical storm that hit California.
The science of what is happening is clear. For more than 100 years, scientists have known that large amounts of greenhouse gases, released from the burning of fossil fuels, go up into the atmosphere and heat the planet. That warming causes more frequent and severe changes in weather patterns. In that sense, climate change can be thought of as the Great Accelerator.
The heat wave that was always going to be hot is even hotter and hangs around much longer, creating a suffocating dome over a large chunk of land. The periodic drought that was already going to happen ends up being drier and longer, draining moisture from the ground and leaving cracks in its wake. More often than not, the tropical storm that was always in the ocean, but which may have subsided before, would turn into a powerful hurricane that pulls everything in contact with it and leaves great floods.
The pace of extreme weather events is worsening, so much so that governments, scientists and humanitarian groups are responding to multiple crises at once.
The extremes increased awareness of climate change, even among people who denied it, or could afford to insulate themselves, or wanted to look out. And the impact is coming into sharp focus.
Climate impacts are felt everywhere, but not equally
No place in the world is immune to the extremes of climate change, but those extremes are not experienced in the same way.
Faced with rising seas, a coastal resident with enough money can afford to raise their house, or simply decide to buy another house further inland. Meanwhile, a poor person may have no way to fortify their home and so have no choice but to watch it fail – or worse, wash themselves out of the flood. Climate change did not create inequality but made it worse.
Migration is one of the biggest manifestations of climate inequality. Every year, the United Nations estimates that more than 21 million people move around the world because bad weather has made life unwelcoming to where they live. Floods have taken their houses. The drought reduced their crops. Unrelenting heat, and any way to escape it, such as with rescue air conditioning, put them at risk of death.
The extremes hit the most vulnerable the hardest, but impacts are widespread – no one is completely unscathed. One of the best examples: wildfires that burn for months push smoke across countries and sometimes even across the globe, making the air dangerous to breathe even when doing simple things like walking.
The extremes also have financial costs. Every year, countries around the world are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to prepare for and rebuild after extreme weather events. At the same time, home insurance companies are pushing up premiums or even no longer offering policies in certain walled off or at risk areas.
The overall picture is bleak, but there are solutions.
Climate solutions offer hope that global warming can be curbed
The world has lost decades in fueling climate change, due to denial, misinformation and inertia, among other reasons.
But solutions are in sight and underway.
Solar and wind power are now cheaper than coal. Offshore wind turbines have proliferated and are now powering entire towns. Giant batteries are becoming more efficient at holding large amounts of power, each year countering the long-standing criticism of solar and wind technologies that “the sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind doesn’t always blow.”
These are only the most established forms of renewable energy. Great progress is also being made in green hydrogen, energy efficiency in buildings, heat pumps and changes in farming, among many others.
The path ahead is not easy. No single technology or new law will solve the problem. Instead, solutions must be implemented simultaneously.
Solutions have trade-offs, sometimes environmental, sometimes human, sometimes both. For example, moving to the world of all electric vehicles will require huge amounts of minerals that have to be dug out of the ground. Beyond major ecological impacts, some of the most mineral-rich lands belong to indigenous communities that do not require mining in their territories.
Proponents of green energy say the licensing process takes too long to get projects up and running. When it comes to large solar and wind farms, local people are often fierce opponents, claiming they don’t want what they see as an eyesore. And some environmentalists oppose it for fear of harming wildlife.
The conversation about solutions is sometimes bogged down by the overwhelming focus on technologies like carbon capture, which are expensive and far from being scaled, or when politicians call on people to make lifestyle changes but don’t. a proposal for major policy changes, which are much larger. effective.
Despite the challenges, the changes taking place in the way we power our world show hope that climate change can be addressed.
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage is supported by several private foundations. See more about the AP climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all matters.
