Extreme weather around the world puts humans to the test
2024-08-10
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Beijing, August 9 (Xinhua) -- This summer, many parts of the world have been "tested" by extreme weather such as high temperatures, and it seems that there is no hottest, only hotter. The World Meteorological Organization recently issued a press release saying that the extreme high temperatures in July affected hundreds of millions of people around the world and triggered a chain reaction.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service, a climate monitoring agency of the European Union, released a report on the 8th saying that July was the second hottest month in the world since the agency began recording in 1940. The report showed that although the global average temperature in July this year was not as high as that in July last year, the world experienced the two hottest days on record on July 22 and July 23.
According to data cited by the World Meteorological Organization, among Asian countries, Japan's average temperature in July was the highest since records began in 1898, breaking the record set just last year. It is expected that Japan's high temperature will continue in August. India also experienced the second hottest July on record.
People walk on the streets of Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan, on July 4, 2024. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang XiaoyuData shows that many areas in the Mediterranean and the Balkans suffered from continuous heat waves in July, causing casualties and affecting public health. Greece, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Bulgaria all experienced the hottest July in their respective countries' records.
Since July, under the impact of heat waves, electricity demand in many European countries has surged, the power grid has been under tremendous pressure, power outages have been frequent, and water shortages have occurred in some countries, seriously affecting people's daily lives and business activities. Italy continues to be affected by low rainfall and high temperature heat waves. The southern region has recently suffered from severe water shortages. The government has warned residents to stay indoors as much as possible during the hottest hours of the day.
The Iranian government said on August 5 that due to the extremely hot weather, government public sectors and banks in several provinces of the country reduced working hours on the 6th and ensured that power supply was not interrupted as temperatures rose.
In addition to the heat waves in the above-mentioned places, the United States has recently been experiencing "water and fire": Vermont in the northeast suffered a new round of floods on July 30, nearly three weeks after Hurricane Beryl caused floods. In the western United States, due to extremely dry and hot weather and other factors, wildfires have continued to rage in many places recently.
Jennifer Malone, a researcher at the Yale School of the Environment in the United States, believes that the number of wildfires now may not be more than before, but due to global warming, wildfires have become larger and more serious. Due to the impact of climate change, abnormal situations including extreme wildfires will continue to occur in the future.
On June 16, 2024, firefighters were extinguishing a fire in the Gorman area in northwest Los Angeles County, California, USA. Xinhua News AgencyThe impact of high temperatures on human health cannot be ignored. UN Secretary-General Guterres said in a speech on extreme heat at the UN headquarters in New York on July 25 that the earth is getting hotter and hotter, which is becoming more and more dangerous for everyone around the world. It is estimated that high temperatures cause nearly 500,000 deaths each year, which is about 30 times the number of deaths caused by tropical cyclones.
A recent survey report from Germany's DAK health insurance company shows that one in four Germans suffers from health problems due to extreme heat, and among people over 60, the proportion is close to one-third.
Global warming not only severely tests humans, but also has a profound impact on marine ecology. Australian researchers published a study on the 7th showing that over the past decade, sea surface temperatures in and around Australia's Great Barrier Reef have risen to their highest level in 400 years. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that since February 2023, large-scale coral reefs in at least 54 countries and regions have experienced bleaching due to warming of the ocean surface caused by climate change.
This is a coral reef in the Great Barrier Reef area photographed in Queensland, Australia on June 2, 2021. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang YueCeleste Szalo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, said recently that in the past year, widespread, intense and persistent heat waves have swept across every continent, with at least 10 countries experiencing daily temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius in more than one place. It is not enough to simply adapt to climate change. Humanity needs to solve the problem fundamentally and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Guterres said recently that extreme high temperatures are having an extreme impact on humans and the earth, and the world must face the challenge of rising temperatures. He has also said before that the need for climate action has never been so urgent, and continued temperature increases may lead to catastrophic rises in sea levels, destruction of tropical coral reef systems and the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people, and further disruption of weather patterns. The international community needs to take immediate action to address climate change.
