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People cool down by the sea in Barcelona, Spain, on July 21
On July 13, 2022, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released a shocking "Map of Earth Burning".
On this day, Earth Satellite monitored that the temperature in many countries and regions in Europe, Africa and Asia was above the record 40 degrees Celsius, and the temperature diagram showed a sheet of extreme high temperature representative colors such as flame red, dark red and even black.
It was also on this day that the 40-degree Celsius heat caused several forest fires in Portugal, Spain and France, forcing the surrounding residents to abandon their homes and flee.
The United Kingdom, which has always been known for its "cool summer", used to have an average temperature of just over 20 degrees Celsius, but in July this year, there was also an unprecedented high temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, and the government was forced to declare a state of emergency.
Many parts of the United States have also experienced persistent heat, with nearly 100 million Americans living under the warning of high temperatures.
The Arctic, which used to be icy and snowy, is also getting hot. In July this year, the temperature of the Arctic Circle soared to 32.5 degrees Celsius, and the "Arctic fever is so hot that wearing short sleeves" rushed to the hot search.
Grindsted, a climate scientist at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark who works in the Arctic, said the heat destroyed the plane's landing site, preventing flights transporting equipment from landing in the camp, so scientists had to wait while wearing shorts to play volleyball on the ice sheet on top of the world.
Stretch the line of sight again: In March, the heat wave also hit India and Pakistan. In that month, India exceeded 42 degrees Celsius for as many as 25 days, and in some areas even lasted for many days exceeded 45 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature in India since 122 years of meteorological records.
The WMO currently sets a high temperature standard of 32 degrees Celsius or more, and the process of high temperatures above 3 consecutive days is called a "heat wave". Peterry Taras, Director-General of the World Meteorological Organization, said bluntly: "In the future, heat waves will become the norm, and we will see more extreme weather, the negative effects of which will continue for decades." ”
It's not just about heat
The heat wave that has swept the world is not just heat, it affects the human environment and life from all aspects.
The Gupta family, a resident of New Delhi, India, vacations to the mountains at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters during the hottest season of the year.
Gupta remembers going to the mountains as a child, and the summer temperature never exceeded 28 degrees Celsius, and he didn't even need to turn on the fan. But this year, even alpine regions suffered their hottest summer in 30 years, with temperatures once exceeding 34 degrees Celsius. When they went hiking at high altitudes, they found that some of the peaks with thick snow all year round were now only a thin layer of snow.
Record heatwaves have led to tight electricity supply, water shortages and food harvests in India. The main grain-producing areas around New Delhi (commonly known as the "wheat rice bowl" area) – Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh – will see a 15 to 35 per cent reduction in wheat harvests this year.
In the future, millions of Indian hawkers selling fruit and snacks on the streets may face the risk of losing their jobs in the summer: too high temperatures will quickly spoil fruits and ingredients, and customers will plummet.
In Spain, Europe, birds are also victims of extreme heat.
The southern Spanish city of Seville is home to the swift, a nationally protected bird. This summer's extreme heat of 43 degrees Celsius turned the swift nest directly into a steamer, hundreds of swifts were heated to death, fell to the ground, and the rest obviously could not fly.
Biologists estimate that there are thousands of young swifts that have not yet learned to fly, most of which have been taken from the nest by adult swallows, escaped the heat, and moved to unknown places.
The Arctic is getting hotter, which is even more worrying.
Currently, the ice sheet of Arctic Greenland is melting at an alarming rate. Much of Greenland is located within the Arctic Circle, and about 80% of the island is covered by ice sheets. According to scientists, on July 15-17, when the heat appeared, the Greenland ice sheet lost about 6 billion tons of ice per day, enough to fill 7.2 million Olympic-size swimming pools.
If the negative effects of climate change, such as high temperatures, continue and the Greenland ice sheet melts, global sea levels will rise by 7.5 meters.
Kay CohenHuber, a climate expert at Columbia University in the United States, said: "Now, the perception of what a heat wave is needs to change: it is not the days you can play on the beach, but the weather that can be harmful to human health and the environment." ”
Glaciers in the Swiss Alps on July 30. Due to the melting of glaciers due to local heat, activities such as skiing and hiking are restricted in some areas
Synchronized heat waves are frequent
The current consensus among scientists around the world is that extreme heat weather is not an occasional event in 2022, but is more likely to be the standard summer season in the world in the future, and the frequency and extremes will be higher.
Tipty Singer, a climate scientist at Washington State University, said: "I also hope to describe extreme heat as 'abnormal', but in fact, it may be the norm in the future." ”
Dr. Effie Rusi, a senior scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, also believes in an interview with Chinese media that the recent global heat wave is due to many reasons, but it is certain that global warming caused by human activities has a clear direct impact on heat waves, making heat waves more frequent and intense.
"There is no doubt that if we continue to emit greenhouse gases arbitrarily, such heat waves will become more frequent and extreme in the future." Russi said.
On this basis, the World Economic Forum and the Online Financial News Media "Business Insider" jointly released a report on July 22, "How this year's heat wave affects the world and how we should prepare for the future", and also proposed a phenomenon worthy of attention - the frequent occurrence of simultaneous heat waves.
A synchronized heat wave is when any two regions on the mid-latitudes experience a large-scale heat wave at the same time. Over the past 40 years, global warming has led to a six-fold increase in the frequency of synchronized heat waves, a 46% increase in coverage and a 17% increase in maximum intensity. This summer, the "synchronized heat wave" is happening almost every day.
The British "Economist" magazine also believes that heat waves are not new, but heat waves are more synchronized between different regions, which is more worrying.
The reason for the increase in synchronization, on the one hand, is a statistical necessity - the more heat wave weather occurs, the higher the probability of simultaneous occurrence everywhere; But on the other hand, synchronized heat waves are also the result of changes in the way high-velocity air currents (a continuous air current circulating around the Earth) move hot air northwards more frequently.
The Economist worries that all this could mean something worse in the future: the increase in the intensity and frequency of heatwaves is enough to toss people, and the consequences of increased synchronization will be even more severe. For example, synchronized heat waves can lead to simultaneous grain harvest failures in different regions, triggering regional food crises.
Professor Kay Cohen Huber of Columbia University's predictions are equally less optimistic: "We are in a climate environment that is constantly moving towards extremes. If the situation continues, we will see more record-breaking extreme weather and more synchronized extreme weather. ”
How to deal with it in the future
If high temperatures are the norm in the future, how should countries respond?
A joint report by the World Economic Forum and Business Insider argues that cities need to prepare for the future of high-temperature weather. For example, increase the area of green space as much as possible and reduce the public space directly exposed to the sun. Infrastructure should also be upgraded to prevent rails from overheating, cables from melting, and energy from shutting down. Corresponding social infrastructure could also be added, such as the planning of public cooling centres, the development of policies to protect outdoor workers and the establishment of effective early warning systems.
But the above advice is easier said than done.
In the UK, for example, the current infrastructure is designed according to the previous climatic environment. For example, the rail is designed according to the heating capacity of up to 27 degrees Celsius, as long as it exceeds 30 degrees Celsius, it is beyond the "comfort zone" of the track.
Pedestrians put umbrellas in London, England, on July 19
Under the high temperature of 40 degrees Celsius this year, many lines in the United Kingdom have been forced to stop operations, and some railway networks have nearly collapsed. Even if the rails can be retrofitted, if extreme heat becomes the norm, all the infrastructure of society may have to be replaced and upgraded, and the monetary and social costs will be difficult to estimate.
Poor and developing countries are in greater need of infrastructure upgrading, but with fewer resources available and more difficult to implement. Many of these countries are still located near the equatorial line, and heat waves can really push temperatures up to the point where it's hard to survive. It is foreseeable that for many developing countries, summer high temperatures may be a serious challenge in the future.
Specific to ordinary families in many countries, how to face the difficult summer in the future is also a headache.
The 40-degree Celsius summer has made Europeans also discuss installing air conditioning. Due to the fact that the summer is always relatively cool and environmental considerations, the installation rate of air conditioning in Europe is very low. According to the International Energy Agency, air conditioning penetration in Europe is only about 5%. By comparison, the United States is as high as 90%, Japan is 89%, China is 60%, and India is also 6%.
However, the cost of installing air conditioners in Europe, especially the high cost of labor, has deterred many ordinary people. In Europe, an ordinary split air conditioner of 700 euros (about 4840 yuan) often costs about the same as the air conditioner itself, and the installation cost is close to 10,000 yuan. Slightly larger split air conditioners, the installation price is generally around 2,000 euros (about 13,800 yuan), or even higher.
After the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, electricity bills in European countries soared. Even if ordinary Europeans can afford to install air conditioning, whether they can afford to use it is probably a problem.
But in any case, in the face of a normalized heat wave, something must be done. First, step up the adaptation and transformation of infrastructure; The second is to solve the problem from the source, and further promote carbon reduction and green energy use and related technological innovations.
Source: Xinhua News Agency