Several southern countries have been affected by high temperatures this summer. Danger warnings of extreme cold and wildfires are raging in Greece and Canada.
– It’s very hot now. Now we’re feeling the consequences, and they’re getting hotter. This is the unpleasant part. It’s a big piece of machinery and we can’t cut emissions overnight. That means more global warming before we get control, to the extent we get it, says climate researcher Bjorn Hallvard Samsit in Cicero.
The Glasgow Agreement limits global warming to 1.5 degrees. The Paris Agreement settled at “less than two degrees”. Samst believes current policy brings us 3 degrees closer to warming.
Like a ghost town
– It’s dramatic. At 1.5 degrees of warming, even the coldest years will follow what we measured in 2023. In 10 to 20 years, this could have been a cold year. If we achieve the two-degree target, there will be no year, exceptionally, as “cold” as it is now.
A climate scientist paints a picture of similar, and worse, heat waves every year.
It is a clear foreshadowing of the next normal state. through thick and thin. most painful. It is unpleasant and will, among other things, destroy agriculture. Well, now let’s see what we can prepare for and we can start working. It takes effort.
– childish
One thing in particular worries the climate scientist.
Ultimately, people will refuse to work in hot conditions. Health care, power plants and infrastructure cannot stop. They can’t stop working, so what happens when they’re not working in the heat? It does not take long interruptions in the healthcare system before major problems arise. We’ll have to think about that pretty much in the future, and how to deal with the extreme heat.
He stresses that we also do not know the extent of the consequences of this on nature.
There are many invisible services that nature provides. It wouldn’t take much before one or more of them ran into problems.
– strangled
– You paint a bleak picture?
– It’s the same picture we’ve been drawing for a long time. But now we see and feel it on our bodies.
– Many people on social media write that the media should stop writing about this, and it’s not so hot. What do you think that?
– It’s just complete nonsense and ignorance. There is something childish about it. Records are what they are, and the results are well documented. The fact that someone says otherwise on social media means nothing. It’s real.
– worth listening to
On Wednesday, American climatologist James Hansen came out WatchmanHe warned that there is more to come unless we reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
– He said we’re damned idiots who don’t act on warnings about the climate crisis, among other things.
Samst refers to Hansen as a heavyweight, someone who is often right in his statements about climate change.
– If anyone says “what did you say” it is him. It is worth listening to him, even when he scolds.
– Do we need references now?
– Partly. What we need are very clear examples that nation leaders and business leaders take seriously. I can talk at length about how I adapt my home to the climate, but it’s another thing if Jonas Jar Store put money into climate adaptation.
– A big problem
He compares the climate crisis to the Corona crisis.
– This threatens many people, but it is not taken seriously.
The team explains:
Diseases are approaching us and we can do something that will have an effect right away. With climate changing, the way it feels, you need to do something to help others elsewhere in the world that will have an impact in the long run. It is very difficult and psychologically understandable. But there is also a big problem. It is more urgent now. We see it. It is not about the future. There are serious consequences today.
– Is it too late?
It’s too late to do anything about the warming we have now. But if we cut emissions now, we prevent further warming. Then it’s about adaptation, adapting our society to a warmer climate. The earlier we start, the easier it will be.
Many of them passed out in the heat
Samset believes it is a matter of priorities, and acknowledges that there are difficult decisions to be made.
– We have to realize that we are in a hurry. We did that during covid. Then we saw how much we can actually do when we have to.