Climate change: Heatwaves sweeping the world should act as a warning sign of what is to come if humanity fails to act – Scotsman comment

It is not unreasonable to make a connection between climate change and extreme weather events around the world

Attributing extreme weather events to climate change is a complicated business, but it can be done. According to a review last year by the Carbon Brief website, scientists have published scores of peer-reviewed papers on wildfires, heatwaves, major storms, severe rainfall events and the like in which a link was made.

For example, the review found that 93 per cent of the 152 extreme heat events assessed were made either more likely or more severe by global warming; the same was true of 56 per cent of the 126 rainfall/flooding events studied and 68 per cent of the 81 droughts. So it’s not always definitely or entirely down to climate change, but it is at least an aggravating factor in most.

So as a vast swathe of the world, from the US south-west to much of southern and eastern Europe to parts of China swelters in almost unbearably high temperatures in the 40s and even 50s, it’s not unreasonable to make the connection. Furthermore, what is happening is entirely in accordance with the predictions made by scientists decades ago about the real-world consequences of the rising average global temperature.

Only recently that global average went above 17 degrees Celsius for the first time in modern history. Those who contest any suggested link between the worldwide trend and individual unusual heat events seem to be working overly hard to deny the reality of what is happening.

A weak El Nino effect, which naturally warms the planet, was detected in June but its full effects will take time to develop. It is expected to grow during the autumn and peak this winter “with moderate-to-strong intensity”, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. So there could be some more unusual weather on its way, in a foretaste of what climate change will gradually make ordinary.

Scientists have been trying to alert the world to the consequences of global warming for years. Now increasingly strange weather is sounding a louder alarm. With greenhouse gas emissions hitting a new record high last year, we must urgently heed the burgeoning warning signs if humanity is to abandon its current sleepwalk towards oblivion.