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Undoubtedly, one of the most striking news related to climate issues recently, was represented by that fierce heat wave that ravaged Australia, which approached 50 degrees Celsius, which prompted weather scientist Diana Eide to say that it is not excluded that Break the highest temperature ever recorded at 50.7 ° C. This steady rise in temperatures led to massive fires in the forests of the south of the country in particular, a situation that has been continuing and increasing year after year in Australia.
It is not new, and it is not limited to this geographical region of the world. A few months ago, on the European continent, France was unique with a new temperature recorded for the first time in history (1), which is 45.9 degrees Celsius, specifically in the southern municipality of "Gallargo-le-Minto" For you, you may find that this is a familiar number in the Arab world, but the Heat Wave, by its definition, does not mean a specific temperature, but rather a sudden rise in temperatures above their rates somewhere very closely, and the difference here is close to weakness as you see. !
May be 35 degrees Celsius relative to a place is the normal rate, but to reach (2) in Germany to 38 degrees Celsius, and Poland to almost the same number, and in Spain exceed the barrier of 40 degrees Celsius, that is a huge increase from the rates, to a degree that led - Perhaps, at first glance, that - to the number of dead (3) was between 30 to 50 thousand people in the severe heat wave that struck Europe during the year 2003, and the European Union cost $ 13 billion in losses.
You may be surprised by these numbers, but many do not know that heatwaves are one of the most terrifying tools of killing in the contemporary world. Of course, there can be no talk about them unless we remember the massive heat wave that struck Russia (4) in 2010 and killed about 60 thousand One person, but during the months of April and May 2015, a very hot wave (5) invaded the land of India and killed 1700 people, not a few days passed until a very hot wave struck Pakistan in the following June and killed 1300 people mainly in Karachi, Then it penetrated into the country, killing 770 people.
What is happening on the planet Earth? This question must urgently urge you from time to time whenever you enjoy an event related to climate change, but you may also say to yourself that it is only related to social media platforms and their spread and that this is usual but the news about it has only appeared now. This is not true, Europe only received the 5 strongest heatwave attacks in the last 20 (6) years (2018, 2010, 2003, 2016, 2002).
In fact, you may be surprised that the 10 hottest years in the history of our measurements of temperature were all present in the last twenty years, but in 2019 only he broke some new records during the current wave and the wave that struck the world during last January (7) So that the difference in temperature in two cities in the north and south of the world is 100 degrees Celsius !!
One frequent cause
Why is this happening? Well, it is the only answer that everyone knows and no one agrees on in the corridors of government buildings (other than only 97% of the scientific community specializing in the study of climate change (8)), it is climate change caused by the activity of modern man, but at that point you may be wondering On the relationship of climate change to hot waves, you will say, for example, that a heat wave such as that was the difference from the rates is about 20 degrees, while we know that global warming raises the average temperature by a degree or a degree and a half only, where are the rest of the degrees?
In fact, this is one of the worst misunderstandings that people exchange about climate change, because the climate is simply a complex system. To understand that, let's imagine that we designed a set of electronic bells to sound a beeper once you hear any sound at a distance of 5 meters From them, then we covered a huge plot of land with 10 thousand bells, each at a distance of 5 meters from the other in all directions, then we hit only one bell, here this bell will affect those around him, then the effect spreads and expands to include all the bells.
Complex systems rely heavily on small-impact conditions, this is what we all know as the "butterfly effect", which says, in its literary form, that a small event like a flutter of a butterfly's wing in China may cause a hurricane in the United States, and the intention here is that these small events grow something Little by little, it affects everything in its surroundings, which gives it more impetus to growth. Thus, growth continues until its impact becomes catastrophic.
Climatic systems are also every point in them that are related to another, and when average temperatures rise, even if only to a small extent, there is a greater opportunity for the emergence of extreme and extreme weather conditions, and here we mean things like hot waves, cold waves, sandstorms, deadly hurricanes, etc., to understand that point We can consider a recent study, released just one month before Princeton University (9), that indicates that combined heatwaves, that is, those that come in a duplex (another heat wave followed by another), increase their rates and severity with increasing global average temperatures.
Uninterrupted flames
The study indicated, through a computer simulation of the evolution of climate change on Earth, that this will inevitably put an increased load on emergency units and the provision of medical services in general, and that energy needs will increase in fabulous amounts, in fact, one of the most famous examples is the high temperatures in Iran (10) During the summer of 2018, where some regions recorded close to 53 degrees Celsius, this directly affected the consumption of water and electricity in the country, which led to their interruption for varying periods, as high temperatures draw from electricity equivalent to 150-200 MW for each degree Overheating, and Iran was registered on July 2, 2018 S. For electrical power, its value is 56,672 MW, which is a historical figure!
An important study in this range was published about three years ago in the journal (Advances) 11, linking the rapid rise of half a degree Celsius in the average temperature in India during the period between 1960 and 2009 and the increase in the heat wave hitting rates by 50% in In some regions, the likelihood of deaths related to heatwaves has risen to 146%. Here, countries like India and Pakistan have entered into a range called "fatal heat waves", which means that deaths due to the heat wave exceed 100 people.
A research team from the University of California had reached the same results in a recent study, heat wave rates have increased by 50% during the past few decades, but the most interesting in that study (12), which covered more than 200 cities, which has a population of more than A quarter of a million citizens is a very important conclusion that says cities are more affected by the heat waves than villages, because the nature of cities prevents heat from escaping easily, everything gets hot and then calms down, but rock walls, closed and narrow areas and buildings prevent this from happening easily, so my nights Cities in hot waves are special cases.
Enthusiastic speeches
The matter is not far from us, in fact we are - here in the Arab world - more vulnerable to climate disasters than others, the number of very hot days has doubled compared to what was the case in the seventies, especially in the Arab Gulf region, and in an attempt to read the future of the region during the current century According to Study (13) (14) From the Max Planck Institute for Atmospheric Chemistry, we will find that there will come a day when temperatures in summer nights do not fall below 30 degrees Celsius, and the 50 degrees Celsius will be a natural figure we see most of the summer. On the other hand, computer research and models are expected, which are based on a detailed study Because of the history of temperature development in the past thirty years, the rates of heatwaves in the MENA region will rise 10 times more than usual.
The last four years have been the hottest in the Arab world, record numbers were broken as sea waves on the rocks, but the most inviting for contemplation and interest are those predictions that say that the next five years will be hotter, according to a recent study in the journal Nature (15) issued by the University Southampton English, where the climate is likely to warm to break new records, this does not mean, of course, that the temperature converges to the extent of combustion, but it certainly means that the problem still exists and continues slowly, which adds a clear burden to the capabilities of the Arab world in several aspects. Begin with food security m Rora with the ability to work and produce.
What to do The answer to this question is simple, but no one wants to believe yet, there is a surprising disconnect between what is necessary to avoid a dangerous development of climate change and what has been done so far, and in a recent study in the journal Nature (16) it appeared that one of the important impacts on the drafting of laws that Limiting climate problems are political pressure processes that prevent their passage. Indeed, the most powerful factors in slowing humanity’s steps towards a world less affected by climate change, or at least a world that stands at the level of disasters now, are political pressures.
If you stop a climate scientist at a prestigious university and ask him about what is expected to happen, he will open his hands, answering what means "I don't know", no one takes serious steps, a lot of international meetings, a lot of hotels crowded with politicians sitting next to the "Open Buffet" Amer pleasures Lots of enthusiastic rhetoric, but the bottom line is nothing. On the contrary, climate anomalies devour the planet literally day by day, and we have not yet talked about biodiversity and the widespread state of extinction that kills the diversity of life on Earth with great determination, While the rest of the world’s citizens sit in the houses and watch !!