AS the convening of world climate summit that Egypt will host in November this year is drawing near, the issue of global climate change continues to acquire both urgency and value especially now that many regions of the world are experiencing extreme heat waves. From the Arctic Circle to Africa southwards and in many locations across the Northern Hemisphere as well as in the Far East, record-breaking temperatures tend to recognise last month as the hottest ever June. In the United States, rising temperatures drew excessive heat warnings in many parts of the country and across the Atlantic soaring heat dominated the weather conditions in France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic. In the United Kingdom, the health Security Agency issued a red heat warning, the first ever highest level four alert which indicates a potential risk to health if the extreme heat wave persists. So, under the circumstances, the link between climate change and soaring temperatures has gained widening recognition including in the scientific community.
The abundant literature on climate change as available online highlights increased frequency, intensity and duration as the main characteristics of the phenomenon of record-breaking temperatures, which is largely attributed to climate change resulting from human activities, especially including fossil fuel consumption. Together with other factors that contribute to aggravating the consequences of climate change, those three characteristics demand invigorative international action to significantly reduce their volume and speed. And for the aspired action to achieve workable and plausible results, the international community needs to expand the base of scientific research in several sectors, especially including green energy and health, with specific focus on striking the necessary balance between human economic activities and climate adaptation programmes.
“Extreme heat waves fueled by climate change could fundamentally change the way we live,” so a global media outlet, Fortune, headlined a June 17 story on the sweltering heat wave storming Europe – a phenomenon it characetrised as the continent’s “deadliest extreme wealth event.” One fact of life in the world of today is that human-caused climate change stands responsible for the alarming increase in the frequency of heatwaves, estimated to be at a factor if 100 or more, and also in intensity and duration, prompting the suggestion by an Oxford University climatology professor as quoted by the same website’s report that climate change is a real game changer. Translated into the physical scene on the ground, the ongoing wave directly indicates that it is by no means a transient occurrence that can be dealt with as an exceptional case that came once upon a time and would go in due course. It’s very much in there to stay on should humans’ relevant activities and the world’s capacity for adaptation remain considerably untied. It’s indeed a challenge for international climate action at all diplomatic, scientific and economic levels.
Discussion about this post