Global heat expected to hit historic records in coming years
Views (161)
"Nobody is going to be untouched by these changes that are happening," an expert from the U.K. Met Office warned on Wednesday.
The deadly heat waves that have gripped nations in recent years are likely about to get much worse. On Wednesday, the World Meteorological Organization announced that data and models show the planet is on track to have its hottest year ever for at least one of the next five years — and that the planet will likely surpass a major climate change threshold.
This record will likely come as the world also surpasses a major and daunting milestone.
"There's a 66% chance that we would exceed 1.5 degrees during the coming five years," Taalas said, pointing to global temperatures compared to pre-industrial times. "And there's a 33% probability that we will see the whole coming five years exceeding that threshold."
Indonesia, the Amazon and Central America will likely see less rainfall already this year, Taalas said, while Europe, Alaska and northern Siberia are expected to have "above average" rainfall in the summer months over the next five years.
"In the coming five years, the estimation is that Arctic temperatures will be three times the global averages," he said. "...That's going to have big impacts on the ecosystems there."
For Taalas, the most worrisome part of this information is that it indicates "we are still moving in the wrong direction."
"This is demonstrating that climate change is proceeding and once we extract this impact of natural variability caused by El Niño...it's demonstrating that we are again moving in the wrong direction when it comes to increases of temperatures," he said.
Leon Hermanson from the U.K. Meteorological Office said during the press conference that his biggest concern is the impacts related to the increase in temperature.
"Nobody is going to be untouched by these changes that are happening, that have happened. And it's leading already to floods across the world, droughts, big movements of people," he said. "And I think that's what we need to work better to understand in terms of what this report implies for those things."
But if the world does pass 1.5 degrees, Hermanson said, "it's not a reason to give up."
"Any emissions that we manage to cut will reduce the warming and this will reduce these extreme impacts that we've been talking about," Hermanson said.
But regardless of what comes within the next few years, Taalas made one thing clear: "There's no return to the climate that's persisted in the last century. That's a fact."
0 Likes