We must accept our part in climate change
THERE can be little room for doubt following the cataclysmic monsoon flooding which has killed 1,200 people in Bangladesh, Nepal and parts of India – and the devastation of Hurricane Harvey in the United States, leaving many thousands of people homeless – that extreme weather appears to be exacerbated by man-made climate change.
Climate scientists have been reluctant thus far to link a specific extreme weather event (such as a hurricane or cyclone) due to insufficient data, particularly among especially poor regions such as southern Asia.
There is, however, a growing consensus among climate scientists that rising sea temperatures are making extreme weather events more likely and magnifying its terrible consequences. Respected climate experts, such as the Potsdam Institute in Germany and US climatologist Michael Mann, have voiced passionate conviction that Harvey’s dreadful impact was most likely exacerbated by climate change. We cannot be absolutely certain until further research is undertaken, although we do know for certain that global warming has caused sea levels to rise by 25cm during the last century alone, meaning extreme weather events originating over the sea are intensifying.
However, there is now overwhelming evidence regarding the effects of climate change in other areas. A prolonged European heatwave in 2003 contributed to 70,000 premature deaths; a Met Office study conducted in 2014 predicted that such extreme heat is now much more likely than it had been a decade previously. A separate study found an extensive drought – swiftly followed by record rainfall and floods – in 2012 was made more likely by climate change.
There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that global warming represents a grave danger to all life on our fragile planet. We must act now while we’re still able to minimise the damage.