Extreme weather: What is it and how is it connected to climate change?
People around the globe are experiencing dramatic heatwaves, deadly floods and wildfires as a result of climate change.
The UK and parts of Europe have seen temperatures of above 40C this month, leading to transport disruption and water shortages.
Emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels have been trapping heat in the atmosphere since the start of the industrial era. This extra heat isn't evenly distributed across the globe, and bursts out extreme weather events.
Unless global emissions are cut, this cycle will continue.
Here are four ways climate change is changing the weather.
1. Hotter, longer heatwaves
To understand the impact of small changes to average temperatures, think of them as a bell curve with extreme cold and hot at either end, and the bulk of temperatures in the middle.
A small shift in the centre means more of the curve touches the extremes - and so heatwaves become more frequent and extreme.
2022 - We are living in the hottest period on earth in 125,000 years
The July 2022 heatwave is happening when average world temperatures have risen by just over 1C from their pre-industrial levels.
We are living in the hottest period in 125,000 years, according to the UN's climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
We know what is behind this - greenhouse gas emissions caused by our burning of fossil fuels like coal and gas. Concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere are at the highest level for two million years and rising, according to the IPCC.
If all the promises governments made at the UN COP26 climate conference in Glasgow last year are actually implemented then we're looking at temperatures rising by 2.4C by the end of the century.
But the bad news is that emissions of CO2 continue to increase. Without big cuts by 2030 we could see temperatures go even higher. Perhaps as much as 4C by the end of the century, scientists predict.
Greenhouse gases are caused by burning fossil fuels like coal, crude oil, refined petrol products like gasoline, petrol, diesel and aviation fuel, heating oil and natural gas. Greenhouse Gases cause Global Warming which causes habitat loss and extinction of species. It must be stopped!
Fossil fuel subsidies a reckless use of public funds
The world is spending half a trillion dollars on fossil fuel subsidies every year, according to a new report. The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) says rich countries are spending seven times more supporting coal, oil and gas than they are on helping poorer nations fight climate change. Fuel subsidies to US farmers amounted to $1bn in 2011 says the ODI. Some countries including Egypt, Morocco and Pakistan, have subsidies bigger than the national fiscal deficit. The new report calls on the G20 to phase out the payments by 2020. While there is no globally agreed definition of what a fossil fuel subsidy actually is, the report draws on a range of sources from the International Monetary Fund to the International Energy Agency. It details the range of financial help given to oil, coal and gas producers and consumers from national governments and through international development. What emerges is a complicated web of different types of payments in different countries. In the United States, for example, the government in 2011 gave a $1bn fuel tax exemption to farmers, $1bn for the strategic petroleum reserve and $0.5bn for oil, coal and gas research and development. Germany gave financial assistance totalling 1.9bn euro to the hard coal sector in the same year. And the UK gave tax concessions worth £280m in 2011 for oil and gas production. Pakistan is a country with the second highest number of children out of school in the world. It has some of the worst nutrition, maternal mortality and child health indicators.
The burning of wood is a major source of black carbon the world over.
Black carbon, or soot, is making a much larger contribution to global warming than previously recognised, according to research.
Scientists say that particles from diesel engines and wood burning could be having twice as much warming effect as assessed in past estimates. They say it ranks second only to carbon dioxide as the most important climate-warming agent. The research is in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres. Black carbon aerosols have been known to warm the atmosphere for many years by absorbing sunlight. They also speed the melting of ice and snow. This new study concludes the dark particles are having a warming effect approximately two thirds that of carbon dioxide, and greater than methane.
Arctic ice melt 'like adding 20 years of CO2 emissions'
The loss of Arctic ice is massively compounding the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, ice scientist Professor Peter Wadhams has told BBC Newsnight.
White ice reflects more sunlight than open water, acting like a parasol. Melting of white Arctic ice, currently at its lowest level in recent history, is causing more absorption. Prof Wadhams calculates this absorption of the sun's rays is having an effect "the equivalent of about 20 years of additional CO2 being added by man".
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