Climate change... when rising temperatures become unbearable
Drought destroys agricultural land and threatens to rise in sea levels.
archival
picture
From the Valley of Death to the Euphrates River, passing through the Indian subcontinent, global warming has transformed the places where millions of people live into uninhabitable areas.
"This area is the hottest place on Earth," said Abbey Waynes, director of communications for the Death Valley National Park in California, adding that "average summer temperatures have become higher in the past 20 years."
In this desert filled with young trees, the temperature reached 54.4 degrees Celsius for two consecutive years, a level not recorded before with modern equipment.
July 2021 was the hottest on the planet, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
"This unbearable heat affects us greatly, and we the poor are worst affected," said Kuldeep Kaur, who lives in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, in northwest India.
At the other end of the planet and under the "heat dome" that hit Canada this summer, Rosa, who lives in Vancouver, complains, "It's unbearable.
You cannot go out in this heat.”
thousands of dead
Without lowering greenhouse gas emissions, Zick Hausfather, a climate scientist at the Breakthrough Institute asserts, this type of phenomenon will remain "the most frequent."
The increase in temperatures associated with global warming is in turn leading to an increase in the frequency and severity of droughts, wildfires, and storms, as well as floods, as well as a multiplication of heat waves that are harmful to agriculture and fatal to humans.
Climatologist and director of the Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute, Robert Fottard, sums up the situation by saying that "the occurrence of a flood means a number of deaths, perhaps dozens, but each heat wave causes the death of thousands, and we know that heat waves multiply."
According to a draft United Nations report obtained by AFP ahead of the international climate conference "COP26", which opens tomorrow in Glasgow, Scotland, "if global warming reaches the threshold of 2 degrees Celsius, a quarter of the world's population will be exposed to heat waves at least once every year." five years".
Impact on cities
Nayef Al-Shammari, 51, said, “The temperature is 43 degrees Celsius, and the time is still between 08:30 and 09:00 in the morning.
At 14:00 the temperature will reach 48 or 49 and sometimes 50 degrees Celsius, but this is normal for us and we are used to that.”
Nayef and his father Saad live and work in the Nafud Al Kabeer desert in Saudi Arabia, where they have been raising camels for generations.
Despite Naif al-Shammari's calm, the way these Bedouins live may eventually be in jeopardy.
"Even animals in the area that can tolerate heat, such as some camels or goats, will be affected, as will agriculture," George Zetis, a researcher at the Cyprus Institute (Cypress Institute), explained, noting that "this extreme heat will therefore have an impact on food production."
The marshes between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq, which according to the legends of the "Garden of Eden", are also in danger.
"The rise in temperature to more than 50 degrees Celsius has repercussions on fish, animals, residents and tourism," said Razak Jabbar, as he slowly advanced into a stream of water in his boat.
He added in desperation that he would most likely have to leave.
Forced departures from rural areas pose other challenges.
“In this part of the world (the Middle East and North Africa) we expect that by the end of the century, about 90% of the population will be living in cities,” said George Zenitis, when temperatures already tend to rise.
In the face of these urgent situations, calls for action are growing. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned in September: “Without immediate, rapid and broad reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, we will not be able to limit global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius. The consequences will be catastrophic.”
If global warming reaches +2°C, a quarter of the world's population will be exposed to heat waves at least once every five years.
• The occurrence of a flood means a number of deaths, perhaps dozens, but each heat wave causes the death of thousands, and we know that heat waves multiply.
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news