Headlines from a warming world
Extreme Weather and Climate Breakdown
While I work-slowly-on an article, I keep up with climate change and extreme weather events. So here are a few significant events from the previous few weeks.
Warming Oceans
According to Copernicus, the two warmest months for surface oceans were July and August 2023, with average temperatures of 20.89°C and 20.98°C, respectively. The warming of the oceans is a critical issue that has been ongoing since the 1970s. The oceans have absorbed more than 90% of all the excess heat energy trapped by CO2, which has led to an average temperature increase of a little more than 1°F (0.6°C) on average over the past two centuries.
Storm Daniel
On Monday, September 4th, a low-pressure system emerged over the eastern Mediterranean, triggering a storm named Daniel over the Ionian Sea. This storm unleashed torrential rain, delivering an astonishing amount of rainfall equivalent to a year's worth in just 18 hours in Central Greece. The consequences were devastating. Satellite data from the radar of the European satellite Sentinel-1 that passed over Greece on Thursday, September 7, show that a large part of the plain of Thessaly region is flooded. In eastern Thessaly, the area of Lake Karla is almost as large as it was before it was drained in 1962 for agriculture. A total of about 720,000 acres of flooded areas are estimated. The cost of the storm in Greece is already estimated to exceed €2 billion, with significant spillover effects on the economy due to the destruction of agricultural and livestock production. And all the data and forecasts of scientists indicate that this will not be the last disaster.
The Mediterranean has already reached the limits beyond which scientists consider the situation irreversible. According to United Nations data, the average temperature in the Mediterranean has already risen 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial times, reaching the 2050 temperature containment target as early as 2020. Beyond the need for a rapid transition to a zero-emission economy, therefore, Mediterranean countries are also facing the immediate need to adapt to the extremes already caused by climate change, which are expected to intensify further.
Libya
The following two images, acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on September 2 and 12, 2023, show the Libyan desert before and after the aftermath of Storm Daniel. The image on the left depicts the desert in its normal state, while the image on the right shows the flooded areas in cyan and blue tones. Two days after the landfall on September 10, over 8,000 people were reported missing, with 5,200 confirmed casualties.
The storm dumped a whopping 440mm (15.7 inches) of rain on eastern Libya in a short time, causing unprecedented floods that burst dams protecting the port city of Derna. The devastation left behind by the storm has underscored the fragility and decay of the infrastructure in the country caused by years of instability since the ouster of longtime ruler Moammar al-Gaddafi in 2011.
Climate change is no longer a far-off threat; it's an ongoing disaster already endangering humans and natural environments worldwide.
Six of Nine Planetary Boundaries Now Exceeded
The Planetary Boundaries Framework is a concept that describes the limits of human activities on the Earth system. It is a framework that identifies nine processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth system, within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come. These nine processes are: climate change, biodiversity loss, land-system change, freshwater use, biogeochemical flows, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosol loading, and novel entities. The framework is based on the idea that if these boundaries are persistently crossed, the environment may not be able to self-regulate anymore. This would mean the Earth system would leave the period of stability of the Holocene, in which human society developed.
The planetary boundaries framework assessment update finds that six of the nine boundaries are transgressed, suggesting that Earth is now well outside of the safe operating space for humanity. You can read the article in The Guardian and for more details, see the open-access paper in Science Advances.
African Climate Summit
More than 13,000 delegates participated in the first-ever Africa Climate Summit, which was held in Nairobi, Kenya. The primary objective of this groundbreaking event—a joint effort of the African Union (AU) and Kenya’s President William Rut—was to foster intra-African cooperation to combat climate change and find sustainable solutions without relying heavily on foreign partners for funding.
Africa is responsible for only a fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions but is suffering disproportionately from climate change. This is harming food security, ecosystems, and economies, fuelling displacement and migration, and worsening the threat of conflict over dwindling resources.
Africa needs to build the foundations for joint climate action at a continental level. Therefore, it is encouraging that the African Climate Summit ended with the heads of state adopting a joint declaration outlining the continent's expectations of the major polluting nations, and its aspirations to become a major player in decarbonizing the global economy. The declaration called for "concrete action" on reforms that lead to "a new financing architecture that is responsive to Africa's needs", including debt restructuring and relief. It remains to be seen whether this will manifest in real action.
Garbage and Plastics: This Endless Problem
The Ocean Cleanup has removed more than 100,000 kg of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). The ocean isn't a garbage dump. The ocean is our life. We must all work together to protect it.
Speaking of garbage, one of the largest and oldest dump sites in India is the Ghazipur landfill in New Delhi. It's so huge that it has been nicknamed ‘Mount Everest". The landfill is over 65 meters tall and covers an area of 40 acres. It receives about 2,000 tonnes of garbage daily, and it's expected to surpass the height of the Taj Mahal (73 meters) by next year. Future generations will understand a lot about our wasteful civilization by looking at our garbage.
"The climate crisis is a fossil fuels crisis"_Al Gore
Al Gore held his first congressional hearing on Climate Change in 1988 (35 years ago). He was serving as a senator for Tennessee at the time. He never stopped being a passionate advocate for climate change awareness and action.
It's worth viewing his most recent TED presentation from July 2023 as he makes a compelling case for disruptive, transformative change.
That is all for this week. Thanks for reading the Climate Histories.