A day more in business as usual is a day less for your children!
“It's very hot today!”
“Fa molto caldo oggi!”
“Hace mucho calor hoy!”
“Heute ist echt warm!”
We are beginning to use, more and more, these phrases all over the world.
And do you know what? We're getting used to the HOT weather, then we'll get used to the VERY HOT weather.
And at the very end we'll be used to the EXTREME consequences of the climate emergency.
This is exactly what is happening in most of the western countries where extreme weather conditions are pushing people to cope better with the consequences without acting with efficiency on the causes.
Even big corporations are struggling to resist the aftermath of their insane polluting actions...
Thawing permafrost in fact is threatening to undermine the supports holding up an elevated section of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, one of the world’s largest oil pipelines that runs from the Gulf of Alaska to the Beaufort Sea, raising the potential of an oil spill in a delicate and remote landscape where it would be extremely difficult to clean up.
And there is the irony of Mother Nature: any spill from the 48-inch diameter pipeline that flows with an average of 20 million gallons of oil a day, could accelerate the thawing of the permafrost even more.
In a country that is heating up twice as fast as the global average...
Speaking of North America, in late June the heat wave killed hundreds of people in the states of Oregon, Washington and Canada and it increased the peak temperatures by about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, including setting a new all-time Canadian temperature record of 49.6ºC in the village of Lytton.
Due to these events scientists stated that it couldn't happen without a boost from human-caused global warming; Dr Friederike Otto, a University of Oxford climate researcher who is among the authors of a study conducted by The World Weather Attribution (WWA) initiative, a collaboration between climate scientists from all over the world, said: “I think it’s by far the largest jump in the record that I have ever seen. We have seen temperature jumps in other heat waves, like in Europe, but never this big.”
The evidence of this is in the Governments' hands: the British Columbia's chief coroner said Wednesday 30 June that at least 486 deaths likely linked to the heat had been reported since Friday 25 June.
While the West Coast was struggling to survive the heat wave and the aftermaths of it (where there’s unprecedented heat, there’s fire), the US East Coast was battered by extreme weather conditions, with heavy thunderstorms that brought flooding and travel disruption to the New York City area, whereas the Tropical Storm Elsa dumped heavy rainfall and even sparked tornadoes in Georgia and North Carolina.
A few days later it was Europe's turn.
Whilst we report this news, Saturday 17 July, at least 60 people are dead and more than 1,300 others are unaccounted for after unprecedented floods in Germany that caused rivers to burst their banks, swept away cars and caused homes to collapse on Thursday 15 July.
Storms caused deadly flooding also in Belgium (8 deaths reported), Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
The situations in these countries are so bad that it pushed other countries (France, Italy and Austria) to send special rescue teams in order to save thousands of people completely isolated or trapped.
It's brighter clean: the future will be characterized by more frequent, more severe, and longer heatwaves, draughts, storms and floods that will make it impossible to survive and to retain any kind of well-being.
So, what's the point in being hesitant and to not act radically?
There will not be any wealthy future because there won't be any future at all.
Governments must not simply "declare" the existence of the Climate Emergency but issue consistent radical actions in order to significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
Will these measures bring any change in our comforts and richness?
Well, fix this in your mind: a day more in your business as usual is a day less for your children.