We have hot days and cold days, dry days and wet days as usual, and sometimes it seems that nothing is really changing. However, that’s not true. Here are a few examples which must make us sit back and think! For example, climate change becomes clear if we read the Central England Temperature record, which is the longest in the world, going back to 1772. Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, says “We can see the fingerprint of global warming in our own backyard. Central England has warmed 20% more than the global average (as land warms faster than oceans) and we expect that to continue.”
Furthermore, world sea-level is expected to rise by about 60 cm by 2100. This sounds a long way off, but many primary school children will still be alive in 2100 and will have experienced these changes. Some low-lying Pacific nations like Kiribati and Tuvalu might disappear altogether. Geologists have projected that such a rise in sea levels could flood Venice and north-eastern Italy as far inland as Ferrara and swamp the popular Adriatic seaside resorts! Even more dramatically, most of the Netherlands would be under water. Some scientists don’t think these so-called doomsday scenarios are all that probable, however. It depends, as it does so often, on statistics and how we interpret them. This is why there are so many question marks over climate change and its effects.
In many areas of the world, it doesn’t rain as much as it used to. In California and many parts of Australia, for example, low rainfall and high temperatures often lead to forest fires on a huge scale, with loss of life and destruction of property. It seems ironical that climate change can increase water levels and huge fires at the same time.
Even more ironically, climate scientists think that despite generally rising temperatures, winter in some parts of the world might get colder. Climate change can produce extremes at both ends of the climate spectrum!
Bernie Sanders, an American Democratic Party nominee for President, regards climate change as an immense threat to national security, and the Director of National Intelligence in the USA, James R. Clapper, maintains that “extreme weather, climate change, and public policies that affect food and water supplies will probably create or exacerbate humanitarian crises and instability risks”. A long period of drought, connected with climate change, is said to have been a factor in starting the civil war in Syria.
So many forecasts, so many comments, so many theories. All we know for certain is that climate change is here and is having many unwanted effects on our lives, now and in the future. Keep informed!