United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hit the nail on the head when he stated recently that climate change is still moving much faster than we are!
There are lucid warning signals. As per Dim Coumou, lead author of the study at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, scorching summer heatwaves and downpours are set to become more extreme in the northern hemisphere as global warming makes weather patterns linger longer in the same place.
There is a risk of "extreme extremes" in North America, Europe and parts of Asia because manmade greenhouse gas emissions seem to be disrupting high-altitude winds that blow eastwards in vast, looping "planetary waves."
Already, European farmers are counting the cost of a summer heatwave that has shrunk cereal harvests and shrivelled pastures, leaving some farms struggling to survive.
The severe weather in Europe has coincided with adverse growing conditions in other major grain producing zones such as Russia and Australia, raising the risk that supplies in exporting countries will be eroded to their smallest in years.
Germany’s farmers’ association DBV has forecast a 22 percent plunge in grain production this year in the European Union’s second-largest cereal grower.
The Arctic is heating at more than twice the global average and that’s certainly not cozy news.
Recent information from the World Meteorological Organisation, World Bank and the International Energy Agency shows the relentless pace of climate change.
As per UN officials, weather-related disasters caused some $320 billion in economic damage, making 2017 the costliest year ever for such losses.
"Political will, innovation and financing to cut global emissions by at least 25 percent over the next two years are the best way out, as the UN chief points out.