Climate threatGlobal challenges

 

Illustration image. AP  

 

Climate threatGlobal challenges  

New study: The world is warming at a record-breaking rate  

 

The world is currently warming by 0.2 degrees per decade – faster than ever before. That's what 50 researchers write in a new peer-reviewed study, AFP reports.  

 

This is due to a combination of two factors – record high emissions of greenhouse gases in parallel with a reduction in air pollution that used to absorb some of the sun's radiation. 

 

- Although we have not yet achieved 1.5 degrees of warming, the carbon dioxide budget will likely be achieved within a few years, says lead author Piers Foster, professor at the University of Leeds.  

 

The carbon dioxide budget refers to the amount of greenhouse gases humans can emit before 1.5 degrees of warming is exceeded.  

 

Satellite image shows the smoke from the fires. AP  

 

The fires in Canada 

Expert: The fires show our new climate reality  

 

Climate change is exacerbating wildfires in Canada and vice versa, climate scientists told the Montreal Gazette. For example, increased temperatures lead to drier lands, which creates the conditions for stronger and harder-to-extinguish forest fires.  

 

Climate scientist Mohammad Reza Alizadeh at MIT and McGill University in Montreal tells The Guardian that the fires are "a very clear sign of climate change" and provide a picture of what the climate future may look like.  

 

Scientists have not determined that the ongoing fires are linked to climate change, but point to global warming leading to worse wildfires in Canada overall.  

 

That's how the sky changed in New York. United States Weather Service  

 

The climate threat|The fires in Canada  

So the sky in New York changed color from the Canada fires  

 

The sky over New York was colored red yesterday - just in the space of three hours, shows a series of images published by the weather agency NWS. The reason was the massive forest fires in Canada.  

 

More than 20,000 people have been forced to leave their homes as a result of several hundred fires spread over more than 3.8 million hectares, writes AFP. In addition, over 100 million people in the northeastern United States, in an area stretching to Chicago in the west and Atlanta in the south, have been warned about the polluted smoke.  

 

Forest fires in Canada  

 

* Is common this time of year in the western parts of the country. But this year they have also spread to the eastern provinces. Quebec is worst affected. 

 

* So far this year, there have been over 2,000 in number and together burned over an area of 3.3 million hectares. It roughly corresponds to the area of Belgium and is around twelve times more than the average of the last ten years.  

 

* Has a number of reasons. A snow-poor winter, a dry spring and lightning are all factors that played a role. 

 

* Has forced tens of thousands to leave their homes.