June 28th, 2019
A
severe
heatwave has
hit major European cities this week with meteorologists warning that
temperatures may soar to well above 40 degrees celsius
across
large parts of the continent.
Record
heatwaves, reportedly travelling from Africa, have led to issuing of
heat alerts and event cancellations in European cities such as Paris,
Berlin and Vienna.
In
Berlin temperatures reached 36 degrees Celsius, 35 degrees in Vienna
and 33 degrees in Paris, with Parisians reportedly rushed to purchase
air-conditioners and other cooling devices as the memory of a 2003
deadly heatwave which killed 15,000 in the country
remains fresh.
Climate
Action Network (CAN), a leading European climate change NGO, has said
that “Europe is racked by effects of climate crisis”, emphasising
that atmospheric CO2 levels have exceeded 415 particular per million
(PPM) for the first time in human history.
Jean-Pascal
van Ypersele, a former Vice Chair for the UN’s Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said that extreme weather is a clear
indication that the “time is running out” when it comes to
decelerating the pace of climate change.
“If
decision-makers keep delaying real climate action, devastating
consequences of climate change will become a norm in Europe and all
parts of society will pay the increasing costs of climate inaction,”
he said.
Wendel Trio, Director of CAN also said that “Europeans are paying the high price of the EU’s climate action”, urging EU leaders to take immediate action by increasing the bloc’s 2030 climate targets.
Irish
environment journalist John Gibbons, who
is currently on an EV road trip in France,
told The
Green News
that the phrase “global warming”, albeit accurate, may have an
“unhelpful” impact on public opinion “since the warming effect
is uneven and there is still plenty of cold weather”.
Mr
Gibbons reasoned that emphasis on the phrase global warming in the
presence of extremely cold weather conditions may “lead people to
doubt whether global warming/climate change is in fact occurring”.
He
added, however, that the
current
heatwaves in Europe have a “reinforcing” impact on the public’s
belief in climate change and may help prod politicians’ into taking
more pragmatic climate action.
“The
general public in Ireland and elsewhere has begun to become keenly
aware that extreme weather events, from droughts to heatwaves, major
forest fires etc. are now happening at an unprecedented rate,” he
said.
“This
makes it a lot tougher for politicians and lobbyists to successfully
argue in favour of the do-nothing approach, and this foot-dragging is
rapidly falling out of favour.”
2018
was the fourth hottest year on record,
with scientists recognising climate change as a significantly
plausible culprit for accelerating, global temperatures.
Some researchers have suggested that extreme weather conditions may harden people’s belief in the imminent threat of climate change.
A
2017 study published in the journal Science
Direct,
found that people’s support for climate adaptation plans as well as
belief in the science of climate change increases during extreme
weather conditions that last for a period of time.
The
study, however, acknowledged that such public opinion impact is
transient and diminishes over time due to what scientists have
described as our
mental adjustment to unusual weather patterns
as they materialise more regularly.
Communicating
the impact of climate change on extreme weather conditions has also
been criticised by climate activists and organisations as
ineffective.
In
Ireland, it was recently
revealed
that Met Éireann staff were
advised not to talk “despair”
over climate change and avoid linking extreme weather conditions to
the accelerating pace of global warming.
In the US, a recent study conducted by media watchdog group Media Matters revealed that American television networks rarely discuss global warming and climate change when reporting on extreme weather.
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