CLIMATE CHANGE

         🖤 CLIMATE CHANGE  🖤

Mother Nature is trying to tell us something.  As the heat literally rises in so many ways, people have gathered in Poland for the United Nation’s latest Climate Summit, known as the COP²⁴. 

Climate change is a long-term shift in global or regional climate patterns. Often climate change refers specifically to the rise in global temperatures from the mid-20th century to present.

As human behavior and choices destabilize the Earth’s climate and biosphere, policymakers will need to do more. The shared nature of the threat also shows the need for closer and more comprehensive international cooperation to preserve the habitat in which human life has thrived. As our Chief Economist Maurice Obstfeld wrote last week, the wolf is at the door. 

Climate is the average weather in a place over many years. Climate change is a shift in those average conditions.

The rapid climate change we are now seeing is caused by humans using oil, gas and coal for their homes, factories and transport. When these fossil fuels burn, they release greenhouse gases - mostly carbon dioxide (CO²). These gases trap the Sun's heat and cause the planet's temperature to rise.

The world is now about 1.1C warmer than it was in the 19th Century - and the amount of CO² in the atmosphere has risen by 50%.

☂️ Impact of CLIMATE CHANGE :-

Extreme weather events are already more intense across the globe, threatening lives and livelihoods.

With further warming, some regions could become uninhabitable, as farmland turns into desert. East Africa is currently facing its fifth season of failed rains, which the UN's World Food Programme says has put up to 22 million people at risk of severe hunger.

Extreme temperatures can also increase the risk of wildfires - as seen in Europe this summer. France and Germany recorded about seven times more land burnt between January and the middle of July 2022, compared with the average.

Hotter temperatures also mean that previously frozen ground will melt in places like Siberia, releasing greenhouse gases trapped for centuries into the atmosphere, further worsening climate change.

In other regions, extreme rainfall is causing historic flooding - as seen recently in China, Pakistan and Nigeria.

◾How will climate change affect             the world?

Climate change will have different effects across the world. According to the UN climate body, the IPCC, if global temperature rise cannot be kept within 1.5C:

→The UK and Europe will be vulnerable to flooding caused by extreme rainfall.

→Countries in the Middle East will experience extreme heatwaves and widespread drought.

→Island nations in the Pacific region could disappear under rising seas.

→Many African nations are likely to suffer droughts and food shortages.

→Drought conditions are likely in the western US, while other areas will see more intense storms.

→Australia is likely to suffer extremes of heat and increases in deaths from wildfires.

◾What are governments doing?

Countries agree climate change can only be tackled by working together, and in a landmark agreement in Paris in 2015, they pledged to try to keep global warming to 1.5C.

Egypt is hosting a summit for world leaders, called COP²⁷, in November, where countries will develop more ambitious plans for cutting emissions including reducing fossil fuel use.

Many countries have pledged to get to "net zero" by 2050. This means reducing greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible, and balancing out remaining emissions by absorbing an equivalent amount from the atmosphere.

Experts agree that this is still achievable, but requires governments, businesses and individuals to make substantial changes now. The big issues facing Egypt's COP²⁷ climate summit.

◾What can individuals do?

Major changes need to come from governments and businesses, but scientists say some small changes in our lives can limit our impact on the climate:

✓Take fewer flights.

✓Live car-free or use an electric car.

✓Reduce consumption of meat and               dairy products.

✓Reduce your energy use.

✓Buy energy efficient products, such           as washing machines, when they               need replacing.

✓Improve your home insulation.

✓Switch from a gas heating system to an     electric heat pump.