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According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report released earlier this month scientists are observing changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system.

The latest assessment of human-made climate change has warned that unless immediate action is taken to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the planet will pass the warming threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next two decades.

The report shows that emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are responsible for approximately 1.1°C of warming since 1850-1900, and finds that averaged over the next 20 years, global temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5°C of warming.

This will result in more heatwaves, droughts, and other extreme weather events.

In the last few weeks alone the world has experienced widespread heatwaves and raging wildfires including temperature records in Antarctica and flooding in Germany.

Are these all ominous signs of what’s to come?

This year Turkey and Greece have been hit particularly hard by wildfires displacing thousands of people and burning tens of thousands of hectares of forest land.

The Greek island of Evia, the country’s second-largest behind Crete, was engulfed in flames for days in what the Greek prime minister described as “a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions.”

While Greece struggled to control the flames with the aid of firefighters and aircraft from several countries, Turkey’s efforts to contain the fires that have ravaged the country since July 28 were helped by recent rainfalls.

The following chart is based on data from the European Forest Fire Information System and shows the scale of this year’s fires in Southern Europe.

The areas burned by wildfires this year already outstrips the annual average of the past 13 years by a wide margin.

Interestingly, Portugal and Spain, both at high risk of wildfires, have not been affected as badly this year, with Portugal’s fire season in particular relatively quiet so far.

It has been clear for decades that the Earth’s climate is changing, and the role of human influence on the climate system is undisputed but are we really listening and understanding what we are doing to the World?

Bronwyn Reid | 4t Consultants

16 | 08 | 2021