Europe's Fires Are Just the Start of a Worse Climate Future
Recent wildfires in France and Spain have already burned areas far exceeding historical averages, forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate. While these devastating blazes may define this summer, they are not a new normal but rather a warning of escalating heatwaves and desiccated landscapes. With more extreme weather predicted, the European Union could see record-breaking fire damage this year, signaling that the worst is yet to come.
They are not a new normal. But worse can nonetheless be expected.
- palata
There is no "new normal", we are in a slope. As long as we emit CO2, the climate will get worse. Year after year. With effects like fires accelerating it, or the loss of the Amazon (it's pretty much lost already, isn't it?) that will just result in more CO2 being released.
We don't have to adapt to the situation as it is now, because it is pretty much the best scenario. We have to adapt to the fact that it will get worse, and worse, and worse. And save what we can. Worried about your country not dominating on the AI scene? Wait until your biggest worry is food.
- postoplust
- gmuslera
This year Europe's fires are not the start. Few years ago we had very extended Australia fires, US/Canada fires, and other not so put in the spotlight fires in other countries around the world. At some point they diverged enough from normal to reach a scale that raised enough eyebrows.
And it is not just forest fires. Floods caused by extreme rainfalls, running out of letters in hurricane seasons, once in a century/millenia extreme weather events happening several times in a decade are increasingly noticeable, and they are just symptoms of bigger but harder to directly perceive global trends like that the global yearly average temperature increased a few tens of degrees or that the ocean is winning heat at a rate of 6 Hiroshima bombs per second.
- world2vec
"Being better at fighting fires, though, is not enough."
Yeah, it's nowhere near enough. We need to seriously revamp how we manage forests. They must be regularly cleaned, huge fire breaks between fenced areas and roads must be created and maintained. Prescribed burns on a regular schedule. Houses cannot be too close to the trees, no matter how pretty it looks. A huge clean radius must be maintained between houses and trees and between properties. All this work must be done in the winter and everything must be prepared for the summer. Every year. Everywhere.
I see none of this happening at a proper scale in my country (Portugal). So of course every summer we se huge forest fires. Lives lost, ecosystems destroyed. Next year it happens again...
It's only going to get worse.
- Hasz
bah, all is not lost.
Climate change will create winners and losers. Losers -- anyone on the equator or within the the tropic of cancer/capricorn. Winners -- those outside those regions or with enough $ to adapt.
Give me solar geoengineering, 2x increase in R&D spending on reducing fossil fuel usage, and funding for direct carbon capture (and a financial incentive to do it).
It's going to get worse before it gets better sadly.
- mikhailfranco
Counter argument from Matt Ridley:
Why the flames of Britain's wildfires have been fanned by the Green agenda as much as the weather
https://www.dailymail.com/debate/article-16017973/Britains-w...
- 1970-01-01
Consequences of inaction, as predicted, will continue until you can't live there anymore.
- a34729t
Any reason SpaceX cannot just build a giant solar shade at L1? This seems fairly doable on the decade timescale, plus it could do double duty as a weapon.
- WarmWash
Don't worry we will end up spraying the atmosphere to buy more time, and the Earth will cool, and people will believe that the problem is solved and we can just go back to burning fossil fuels.
So the fighting will continue while we keep duct taping and band aiding the problem.
- jojocool0501
For those who have heard enough of "As long as we emit CO2, the climate will get worse", these rabbit holes I recently discovered : new science about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_river and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotic_pump.
You can look up : Antonio Donato Nobre, Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva and go from there.
The science is NOT settled, and people are still learning how all this works. They may all be crooks for all i know.
But as is mentionned in another comment, "(...)stop eating meat, stop driving non-electric vehicles, stop using AC, reduce consumption (...)" won't save us if indeed the massive hits to old-growth forest doom us anyhow.
Arguing for arguing’s sake gets old fast when there is nothing left to drink.