NEW YORK (AP) — For decades, scientists have warned that the continued burning of oil, gas and coal would have devastating climate impacts. These impacts are being felt around the world.
Climate change is causing extreme weather conditions
By all accounts, the last few years have been brutal for the climate – and for humans and other living things within it. Around the world, heat records were broken. Floods have drenched Pakistan, Libya and several other countries in torrents that have destroyed property and claimed lives. Powerful hurricanes have hit usual land targets, such as the eastern coasts of India and the United States. And strange once-in-a-generation events occurred, like a tropical storm that hit California.
The science of what is happening is clear. Scientists have known for more than 100 years that large amounts of greenhouse gases, released by the burning of fossil fuels, rise into the atmosphere and warm the planet. This warming leads to frequent and more extreme changes in weather patterns. In this sense, climate change can be considered the Great Accelerator.
The heat wave that would always be hot is even hotter and lasts much longer, forming a suffocating dome over large chunks of land. The periodic drought that was already going to happen ends up being drier and longer lasting, removing moisture from the soil and leaving traces of cracks. The tropical storm that would always form in the ocean, but which could have subsided sooner, more often turns into a powerful hurricane that hits everything it touches and causes major flooding.
The pace of extreme climate events is dizzying, so much so that governments, scientists and humanitarian groups find themselves responding to multiple crises at the same time.
The extremes raised awareness about climate change, even among people who denied it, or had the means to isolate themselves, or just wanted to look away. And the impact is becoming clear.
Climate impacts are felt everywhere, but not equally
No place on Earth is immune to the extremes of climate change, but these extremes are not experienced equally.
Faced with rising sea levels, a coastal resident with enough money can afford to build their own house, or simply decide to buy another house further inland. However, a poor person may have no way of fortifying their home and therefore have no choice but to watch it get washed away – or worse, get swept away by the floods themselves. Climate change did not create inequality, but it made it worse.
One of the most visceral manifestations of climate inequality is migration. Every year, the UN estimates that more than 21 million people around the world are displaced because extreme weather conditions have made life inhospitable where they live. The floods took away their homes. The drought withered their crops. The incessant heat and the inability to escape it, as with life-saving air conditioning, puts us at risk of death.
Extremes hit the most vulnerable hardest, but the impacts are widespread – no one is completely spared. One of the best examples: months-long wildfires spread smoke across countries, and sometimes the entire world, making the air dangerous to breathe, even while doing simple things like going for a walk.
Extremes also have financial costs. Every year, countries around the world spend hundreds of billions of dollars to prepare for and rebuild after extreme climate crises. At the same time, home insurers are increasing premiums or even stopping offering policies in some areas that have been harmed or are at risk.
The overall picture is bleak, but there are solutions.
Climate solutions provide hope that global warming can be contained
The world lost decades mobilizing against climate change, due to denialism, misinformation and inertia, among other reasons.
But solutions are in sight and underway.
Solar and wind energy are now cheaper than coal. Offshore wind turbines have expanded enormously and now power entire cities. Huge batteries are becoming more efficient at retaining large amounts of energy, improving every year in responding to the long-standing critique of solar and wind technologies that “the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow.”
These are just the most established forms of renewable energy. There are also major advances in terms of green hydrogen, energy efficiency in buildings, heat pumps and changes in agriculture, among many others.
The path forward is not easy. No technology or new law will solve the problem. Instead, solutions must be implemented at the same time.
Solutions have a trade-off, sometimes environmental, sometimes human, sometimes both. For example, moving to a world where there are only electric vehicles will require enormous amounts of minerals that will have to be extracted from the ground. In addition to the considerable ecological impacts, some of the lands richest in minerals belong to indigenous peoples who do not want mining in their territories.
Green energy advocates say the permitting 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, arguing that they do not want what they consider an eyesore. And some environmentalists oppose it due to fears that wildlife will be harmed.
The conversation about solutions is sometimes clouded by the outsized attention given to technologies like carbon capture, which are expensive and far from scaled, or when politicians call on people to make lifestyle changes but don’t advocate big changes. policies, which are much more effective.
Despite the challenges, the changes occurring in the way we power our world represent hope that climate change can be addressed.
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