We are all tired of reading and listening to it, and most of us have already seen dozens of videos showing the burning European forests. The Earth is enraged, and so it burns it all. Withal, it still seems imperious to say, and necessary to remember: climate change kills. And our inaction (or extreme action) is not going to solve it.
A few weeks ago I wrote about why, despite having enough evidence to compel politics and public opinion that climate change is real, there is still a generalized reticence to tackle the real problem. Today, I don't want to focus on who bears the blame, but rather on what is actually happening: what are the causes of extreme heat waves across Europe, their consequences, and what can we do to mitigate the problem.
What causes a Heatwave?
Climate change is a continuous debate amongst scientists. And precisely, one of the main topics of discussion is the causes of it. While some argue global warming has a natural tendency, there is a charted agreement that, indeed, it is human action the main responsible for it.
Heatwaves are usually associated with three main factors: global warming, the circulation of air in the atmosphere, and a change in the ocean and sea levels. But before deepening on the causes of heatwaves, perhaps it is important to define them. As the book Farmers' Almanac articulates: to be considered a heatwave, temperatures have to be above the historical average for a given area.
So far this summer, temperatures have reached their historical records in most the European countries and the US, leaning up to 38 and 42 Celsius Degrees (100.4 and 107 Fahrenheit). So, despite all controversy around global warming, that we can acknowledge: this summer, we are living a meltdown. Hundreds of hectares, endemic species, and human lives are at risk, and there is no way to stop it. On the contrary, scientists warn it is only going to get worse. And as science journalist Henry Fountain, from The New York Times, writes: there are still two more months of summer left. For this reason, ecologist and scientific communities around the world speak about a climate emergency rather than a simple change.
1. Global heating, or overheating
There is a mapped scientific consensus on today's temperatures being on average 1.1 Celsius degrees (2 Fahrenheit) higher than in the late 19th century before Carbon Dioxide emissions and other heat-trapping gases became regnant. The New York Times named it 'a threat to modernization', given the resistance of most countries to finally abandon fossil fuels and start their energetic transition to renewable sources. Even though not all CO2 in the atmosphere is given to the lack of sustainable power generation, big fossil fuel corporations carry a big burden upon their shoulders.
When fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas are burned, large amounts of greenhouse gases are released into the air. And within the emissions of greenhouse gases like CO2 and methane, the Earth's heat gets trapped in the atmosphere, producing a warming effect – what we know today as global warming, or its more accurate term, overheating–, equipable to the desired effect in farming greenhouses.
The name 'greenhouse' gases explain the effect of the radiation emitted by Earth's surface and the re-emission of these radiations in all directions by atmosphere gases like CO2 and methane. This causes both, a warming in the Earth's surface, and the descending atmosphere. When the atmosphere gets 'thinner' or lower, it allows for solar radiation to further reach the Earth's surface, which increases its temperature.
Even though the burning of fossil fuels is the main responsible for overheating, there are still other factors that contribute to heat waves, such as a change in the air stream –the circulation of the atmosphere–, the melting of the Arctic Poles –causing an increase on the Ocean and Sea levels–, and a change in the ocean currents, also related to the modification of the atmosphere.
2. Shifting Jet Streams, or Upper-Atmospheric Wind
The effects of climate change on upper-atmosphere wind is a hot topic for climate scientists. While some argue that the change of jet streams increases extreme weather conditions, others discredit that this shift could rise Earth's temperature. However, during the past decades, scientific authorities have claimed that jet streams have heavily weakened due to the increased warming in the Artic, which does relate to a change in the climate.
Natural climate variability can make it difficult to tease out specific influences of overheating, as Dr. Efi Rousi, a senior scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research in Germany, defends. There is a climate controversy on that information, given that some experts believe that a northward shift on the upper-atmospheric currents could result in a more stable jet stream, while others are convinced that the warming of the Arctic is not affecting the waviness of the jet stream at all. Despite the continuous scientific debate on this topic, there is an agreement on upper-atmospheric wind shifts' effects on overheating.
The jet stream is constantly moving, like all rivers, but when it curves northwards warm air is brought up from the tropics, producing hot and dry periods. A stable jet stream would flow on a somewhat straight path across the Earth, following a shape similar to the meridians. In any case, all overheating studies lead to the same conclusion: the Artic Poles are melting, and temperatures are higher than ever.
3. Ocean and sea levels rise too
On a global scale, residential and commercial buildings consume more than half of all electricity. They still require carbon, oil, and natural gas –for instance, in-house heating, refrigeration, and air conditioning. Besides the generation of this required energy being provided from fossil fuel sources, big industries and manufacturer sectors are responsible for greenhouse emissions too. Fossil Fuels are burned massively in order to produce infrastructural items like cement, iron, and steel; and common goods like electronics, plastics, and clothing. In that aspect, the excessive consumption of energy –and massive goods consumption like clothing, electronic devices, and plastics– contribute massively to energy usage and industrial manufacture. To an extent, then, human consumption can further extend the current energy and climate crisis.
Besides big fossil fuel corporations, individual choices play a big role in global warming too. However, –and, again, my goal today is not to signal who to blame, but to rather help clarify the issue– individual action alone is never going to solve overheating because actions require an infrastructural and systemic change across the globe. As one of the biggest infrastructures, transport plays a big role in global warming: most cars, trucks, ships, and planes function with fossil fuels. This makes transport one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases emission, especially CO2.
Deforestation, on the other hand, is crucial too in order to understand the causes of climate change. When farms and big plantations are created, enormous hectares of forests have to be destroyed and deforested. This not only shrinks autochthonous animal and plant species but also eradicates nature's capacity to maintain greenhouse gas emissions out of the atmosphere. Forests' natural functioning –plant photosynthesis– allows for CO2 to be absorbed. Because Agricola machines and fishing boats require huge amounts of energy, food production is one of the main responsible for deforestation. Furthermore, big crops and meat industries provoke emissions too, when fertilizers are used for vegetable growing; and cattle produce immense quantities of methane gas.
What are the consequences of global warming?
Overheating, produced by all the above-mentioned human actions, is a human-made reality. That doesn't mean it only exists when studied or signaled, but rather that the Earth is actually living a period of extreme changes in its temperature due to human action. But its consequences are beyond human reach. Harsh changes in the atmospheric conditions lead to drier summers, especially in Europe, and scientists warn it's only going to get worse. In the past days, I read on an ecologist blog that "this summer is the coldest summer of our lives". And perhaps, if radical actions are not taken soon, this could be a reality.
Extreme heat dries out the soil, and without moisture on the surface to evaporate during heat waves –so Earth's surface can cool down–, hot airwaves only get more intense. And within the effects of greenhouse emissions, the sun's radiations add up to that heat. Droughts have several consequences on ecosystems, disrupting food production, increasing extreme weather events, and making the planet a more harsh and difficult place to live.
When water and Earth's surface temperature increase during heat waves, water, and soil quality degradation, negatively impact marine and terrestrial populations. Furthermore, it can also lead to the death of many other organisms in both water and terrestrial ecosystems. When there is no water to be condensed into rain due to extreme droughts, water shortages become rampant, which increases stress for plants and humans, especially in arid regions. This reduces the plant growth, the basis of energy production, and the food chain, drying out the landscape as an overall –and most visible– consequence.
Rising sea levels already threaten coastal cities and island nations, but the human cost of climate change goes even further. Beyond all ecosystem damage, there are several socio-cultural consequences of overheating too. When droughts and extreme climate conditions hit rural and poor areas, people are forced to either displace or travel further in order to get water and food. In some countries, young women are forced to do that task, which prevents them from attending school.
As for the counted number of deaths due to overheating, a Nature Climate Change study reported in June of this year, that for the 732 sites on 6 continents they studied, on average, 37% of all heat-related deaths could be pinned directly to climate change. During the recent wildfires provoked by global warming's consequences in European countries like Spain, France, Italy, and Portugal, the Guardian reports more than 160 people injured, including firefighters. Meanwhile, Portugal’s DGS health authority confirmed it had registered 238 excess deaths associated to the heatwave between 7 and 13 July of this same year. Climate refugees' numbers, along the dead, are also going to increase as sea levels and temperatures rise. And, as more data trickles in, those numbers are likely to rise even further, and more consequences are likely to add up to this list.
It's An Emergency State. So What's Next?
Science academies from all around the world have long warned about the possible impacts of climate change, and despite all collected data and evidence, how come today's heatwave and its consequences couldn't have been predicted? And even further: couldn't all its consequences have been avoided?
Geologist Researcher Summer Praetorius argues that "scientists can't predict the particular extreme events that will unfold decades in the future". What has been done, and what science can provide, are estimated long-term projections based on the best available data and models. However, as climate change effects need to be addressed on a local scale –as they happen globally but are suffered locally– Science witnesses an even more complicated scene to anticipate climate change's effects and prevent them. This means that climate emergency will still manifest in surprising and abrupt ways, affecting differently every region, species, and ecosystem: and so an intersectional view is necessary to address the subject.
As climate change is a multifactorial family of interconnected problems, a multiple-approach way of thinking is also needed. Indeed, there is not a simple solution, but rather, there is a need for numerous solution-thinking and proposals. Perhaps more scientists should engage in its study, but also more civilians should participate in the climate justice fight. As I wrote a few months ago in an article about antispecist thinking, we won’t be able to ‘solve’ climate change once and for all, yet we can study it and spread as much awareness about it as we can.
While awareness of those abrupt and long-term changes and their effects on local scales is more than necessary and it is already happening, in order for real action that tackles the problem to happen, there is a need to create new narratives about the climate. Social and cultural contexts are intrinsic to understanding any human-made atrocity like overheating or the Anthropocene, and so perceptions of scientific understanding and climate justice need to call for action to everyone, adapting each narrative locally; and providing resources and educational material to further democratize its understanding.
As Social Scientist Bruno Latour argues in The Politics of Nature: East and West Perspectives, nature is somehow now entangled in the political arena, but for as long as old ideas of progress and growth are still in the mouth of our leaders –and here, not only political leaders but also those on top of giant corporations, and everyone who holds a voice in any social fight–, mitigating climate change will never be at the top of the shared agenda. The so-famous Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are in every new political, entrepreneurial and social action discourse, yet countries on top of the SDGs rakings –like Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and France– are, in fact, some of the most environmentally unsustainable of the world.
Some argue that the solution resides in de-growing, or changing to renewables the faster we can. But the truth is, no matter how many green proposals we come up with: willingly overcoming Climate Change will require radical social, political, economical, and (forcedly) environmental changes. But radicalism is far from any ethical approach, and even further from today's narratives on the climate emergency. So the quest will inevitably pass through change, but here we need to ask: are we ready for that?
Perhaps we'll leave that consideration for the next article.
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