Record-breaking heatwaves and droughts, devastating wildfires, torrential rain and hailstorms all across Europe are costing lives, damaging infrastructure, diminishing biodiversity and hitting tourism, harvests and the economy. Some governments have imposed rules to ensure the safety of their workers and are calling for rigorous measures to combat climate change, write Agerpres.
Heatwaves have simultaneously gripped three continents in the Northern Hemisphere this summer as global warming worsens. In Mediterranean countries especially favoured by tourists, such as Spain, Italy and Greece, temperatures have topped 40 degrees celsius in places, and further heatwaves are expected. The Mediterranean region has long been classified as a climate change hotspot by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
July is set to be the hottest month in thousands of years, climate scientists from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the European Climate Change Service Copernicus reported after analysing data up to July 23.
‘We don’t have to wait for the end of the month to know this. Short of a mini-Ice Age over the next days, July 2023 will shatter records across the board,’ UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, adding that ‘the era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.’
The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres
Scientists from the World Weather Attribution initiative said the heatwaves that have hit parts of Europe and North America in July would have been almost impossible without human-caused climate change.
‘We are seeing unprecedented changes all over the world,’ top NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt said, with records being broken on land and at sea.
Over the past year, more than 60,000 people have died in Europe due to extreme heat, according to Hans Kluge, the World Health Organisation’s director for Europe, adding that the number of deaths from extreme heat ‘is set to rise year-on-year.’
Europe split in two extremes
Although the weather in Germany and northern Europe this July felt less warm than in other summers, heatwaves in North America, Asia and southern Europe lifted the global average.
Greece has been battling devastating wildfires driven by intense heat on the islands of Evia, Corfu and Rhodes. Thousands of people have been evacuated. According to the European Commission, European Union countries have been supporting Greece with almost 500 firefighters and seven planes deployed to different areas in the country.
‘Together, we are deploying available resources to fight the fires and protect our citizens and landscapes,’ EU Crisis Commissioner Janez Lenarcic said in a statement. Countries worldwide can request help from EU members in case of a disaster, with the European Commission coordinating the deployment of civil protection equipment and experts.
Aside from Greece, other countries in Europe such as Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Italy and France are also facing abnormally sweltering temperatures. In Turkey, temperatures around the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea are up to 8 degrees above the usual level for this time of year, according to the weather service. Fires caused landmines to explode near the southern Croatian city of Dubrovnik, local media reported.
