Berlin:
With intense climate killing more than 150 individuals in Europe and searing heat across components of North America, the debate about climate transform has grown more fierce in current weeks.
But can worldwide warming truly be blamed for these incredibly distinctive, isolated events in distinctive components of the world?
According to Jean Jouzel, a climatologist and former vice-president of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there is a “plausible” hyperlink, although it has not been established however.
“Unfortunately, we are in the early stages of global warming, and what lies ahead will be even worse,” he told AFP.
“We must not kid ourselves that climate change is limited to a few isolated disasters or to one region or time period.”
In Europe, masses of air loaded with water had been blocked at higher altitude by cold temperatures, major them to stagnate for 4 days more than the area and dump torrents of rain, Jouzel mentioned.
“The phenomenon is familiar to meteorologists, but it has been 100 years since it last occurred on this scale,” he mentioned.
Huge rainfall
“In just two days, the region saw the same amount of rainfall it would normally experience in two or three months — the kind of event that might sometimes be seen in Mediterranean climates in the autumn, but not at these latitudes.”
Scientists will now have to analyse the occasion to figure out precisely why it occurred, he mentioned.
“Science takes time, but I believe we will have an answer soon enough,” he mentioned.
As to irrespective of whether worldwide warming was straight accountable for the catastrophe, the specialist mentioned: “We have our suspicions, but they are not scientific facts. We have to take the time to analyse the event.”
On the other hand, the IPCC has for some time been predicting an intensification of intense events of this sort, especially rainfall, he points out.
“Scientists have already observed a sharp increase in extreme precipitation over the last 20 years, particularly in the Mediterranean,” he mentioned.
‘Not up to the task’
“It is clear that if more water evaporates because it is warmer, that will technically lead to more precipitation and more episodes of violent rainfall.”
There is a genuine danger that events like this will raise in the coming years and decades, Jouzel believes.
If the Earth’s temperature rises by 3 or 4 degrees, events like droughts, heatwaves and floods will develop into more frequent and intense, he mentioned.
Having the correct infrastructure to deal with such events will then be the only way to stay clear of human tragedy — such as the devastating effects of current 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures in Canada.
“I don’t think there is enough awareness, and I’m not sure that people understand the seriousness of the problem. The political decision-makers, in particular, are not up to the task,” Jouzel mentioned.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)