Climate Threat Global Challenges

Giant Iceberg Could Be Gone in a Few Weeks

The giant iceberg A23a, one of the oldest and largest ever recorded, is melting and could be gone in a few weeks, AFP news agency reports.

The iceberg broke off from Antarctica in 1986 and was more than twice the size of London. According to satellite images from the EU's climate service Copernicus, the iceberg has shrunk and is now only half its size.

- The water is too warm for it to hold together. It melts all the time, says oceanographer Andrew Meijers.

It is natural for icebergs to break off from Antarctica, but scientists believe that climate change is speeding up the process.

Europe's Heat Waves
This year's British summer the warmest on record

This past summer was the warmest ever recorded in the UK, the country's meteorological agency Met Office announced, AFP reports.

The average temperature over the summer has been 16.1 degrees, compared with 15.75 degrees from the previous record year in 2018.

The high temperatures are explained by a combination of a number of factors such as recurring high pressure, unusually warm seawater and dry land.

The Met Office also notes that summers as hot as this year have become 70 times more likely than they would have been without the greenhouse effect caused by human activity.

French minister on the heat: "A taste of what awaits"

This year's summer with recurring heat waves and numerous fires in forests and land in southern Europe is a taste of what awaits in the future. This is according to French Environment Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher.

- We all know that the summer we are experiencing in many ways represents a critical point, she says, warning that the future is likely to offer even worse heat waves.

This year's summer was the third warmest recorded in France since records began in 1900.

Spain and Greece, among others, have also been hard hit by heat and fires.