Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!
This is something I have been meaning to write for quite some time already and after I read what Southern Europe is about to experience in the next few days, I finally decided to actually write this little rant today.
So what is that that Southern Europe is just about to experience? Heat. Extreme heat with temperatures reaching as high as 50 C (122 F). The highest temperature officially recorded in Europe (ever) is 48 C (118.4 F) and it was measured in Athens, Greece in July, 1977. The chances are that the record will soon be broken and maybe even by several full degrees...
Image source: Athens Insiders
But this is not the only weather/climate extremeness that we have seen this summer. Not at all. In fact, Canada, the big country up there in north that is often ridiculed for being unbearably cold was actually unbearably hot. Just a few weeks ago, some parts of Canada were dealing with temperatures just as high as those that Southern Europe is now expecting. At this latitude, however, people are not used to dealing with such extreme temperatures and unfortunately, hundreds of the locals died of the heat.
Image source: US News
About a month ago, my own country, the Czech Republic was devastated by a tornado. It was a total shock for the Czech people because tornadoes are extremely rare in Central Europe and if they occur, they are usually small and harmless. Not this one though. The tornado that swept over the South Moravian Region of the country killed several people, injured hundreds and damaged thousands of buildings. It was an absolute, unprecedented disaster of this kind in the Czech Republic and a lot of people still cannot recover from the shock and loss they suffered...
Image source: Novy Cas
A few weeks later, the Germans, our western neighbors, got hit by a natural disaster too. Just like "our tornado", the floods that devastated Germany were also unprecedented. The rain causing the floods was actually so intense and covered such a large area that both meteorologists and even scientists couldn´t actually believe it. They thought it was not even theoretically possible to rain so much at such a vast area. Results? More than a hundred of people died, hundreds more were missing (some might still be), thousands became homeless... Belgium and the Netherlands were also affected by the floods with dozens of people losing their lives to the raging natural element in those two countries.
Image source: Science Mag
Soon after that, Italy reported another case of Mother Nature being very angry. The northern part of the country got bombarded with extremely large hails. Hundreds of people were injured, mostly by pieces of broken glass as the hails totally damaged cars, windows etc. At the same time, on the other side of the country, the island of Sardinia was suffering from ravaging wild fires...
Image source: Meteopress
Now this is just a little sample of what our planet has been dealing with this summer. I am sure there have been many more cases of some extreme, unprecedented climate related phenomena in other parts of the world that for some reason didn´t make it to the headlines or they did but I missed it. Only the most ignorant ones can still pretend they don´t see that millions of people around the world are dealing with things they never experienced during their lives before. Yet, the climate change deniers are still out there... Maybe it will only be after some of these unprecedented natural disasters affect their own lives that they will finally see the light.
How about you guys? Have there been any cases of extreme weather or unprecedented natural phenomena in your regions / countries? Let me know it the comment section below.
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There are definitely terrible things that are happening... but in some ways, it is a silver lining in that it is happening in the Western/First world. When these things happen in poorer countries, we just don't seem to notice or pay attention! When it happens in the richer countries, that is when we will wake up and start doing something about it.
That´s a very good point, yeah, whatever happens in rich/developed countries, always gets more attention than what happens in the third world. Quite sad bias actually. Let´s hope it will indeed bring about some major, so much needed changes in the behavior of people.
Thanks for your contribution to the debate.
You have a valid point, @bengy. Thank you for pointing that out to me.
Crazy times indeed!
I don't know where that is leading to...
Little support for the awareness
@tipu curate 6
I don´t know either but definitely looks very alarming already...
Thanks for your support Andy! Apparently, TipU is not working right now but hopefully they will deliver the vote later :)
Edit: They didn´t but never mind, thank you anyway.
I live in The Netherlands, my province here was not affected by the floods. Thank God for that. But the heavy rain causing these floods is not the only strange thing we are dealing with. We don't have a summer at all. It's almost daily gray and raining, temperatures are very low for this time of the year, but the most alarming thing so far ... I hardly see insects!
This can mean that many harvests will fail, and therefore ultimately much more expensive raw materials, because they would have to be imported.
Wow, that´s some interesting but also very disturbing observations. I had no idea. Here in Central Europe, the summer has been quite normal in terms of temperatures this year but extreme storms, winds and rainfalls are much more common than they used to be. I also heard that we are losing a lot of insects (because of agriculture taking over more and more land) but when outside in nature, you still see quite a lot of bugs, butterflies etc.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us, much appreciated.
I live in the countryside of The Netherlands, and usually we have a lot of insects here. But not this year. The birds are coming much closer to where we sit in the garden because they have troubles to find insects to eat.
50 degrees Celsius is awful! We had +35 and I could hardly stand it. I don't have enough oxygen in this heat and can't do anything productively. So far, strong showers and winds have passed us, but no one knows what will happen next. Humanity has been careless about nature for too long and now we are reaping the benefits of our short-sightedness.
I think your last sentence sums it up perfectly. And this may well be just the beginning of the nature´s revenge...
Thank you for stopping by, always a pleasure.
One week with temperatures over 40°C gone, one more to go. Tuesday & Wednesday are forecast to have the highest yet with 44°:
& I intend to go through it without air-conditioning. Last year I had to pay 50€ extra for a month when I used it. I don't have money to waste. Hooray!
BTW, current temperatures in Europe are only slightly higher than during the Roman Warm Period. Hence, Europe is still quite well off.
The problem is that Global Warming is - well - global. & it's still getting warmer. Anyway, there is no need to panic, even if extreme events will get more common. At least in Europe they will for the time being stay rare.
Speaking of rare events: There were bushfires here in Patras a few days ago. Will post about it Saturday or Sunday. Wanted to do it earlier, but working at the computer with these temperatures is no fun.
The problem of global warming is actually quite complex and not so easy to understand. I mean there are so many different factors influencing the final "result" or the pace and scale of the warming if you will... Even scientists sometimes cannot agree on everything related to this theme but what a vast majority of them do agree on is that this thing is real, very dangerous and, unfortunately, caused by humans (at least to a very significant point).
Take care you guys in Greece and stay cool. I mean cold. But cool too ;) Thanks for your contribution man.
Yep, very complex. It could actually happen that in Europe we will have a new Ice Age, if the Gulf Stream ceases.
Either way, in my opinion, except for the occasional flooding or landslide (or extreme cold waves in a regional Ice Age), much of the northern hemisphere should be able to cope. Those poor sods in poorer countries will be the ones to really suffer.
That's so sad and heartbreaking news. Here in the Philippines is surging with COVID cases again. The cases went up with the new variant and we're now back on modified enhanced community quarantine. We can't travel locally again. We need to stay at home as much as possible. In hope that everything will go back to normal soon.
Yeah, I just read some updates on the covid situation in Asia, so sorry guys... But talking about the environmental issues here, the pandemic has actually been a real blessing for nature all over the world. I know it may sound like a poor consolation, especially to those whose lives were directly affected by the pandemic but it´s good to know there is this silver lining too. This documentary by David Attenborough reveals the positive impact of the pandemic on our planet in a very nice way. So many things and connections we would never even realize...
Yeah, brother... I know nothing about weather studies and stuff, but I can't deny things are changing. My dad is a minor farmer and he says that if the weather keeps on changing on this pace, we'll be able to plant sugar cane in my state, because some areas are getting absolutely dry.
I'm shocked to see the level of destruction in Europe.
Well, I am just as shocked every time I come across an article about how fast the Amazon forest is vanishing in Brazil. Rather sad and angry than shocked actually because I already know about it... Looks like your current president is a pretty big fan of the deforestation :( Any prospects of a more eco friendly head of the country?
I'm not on par of what is going on. We've reached a point where the mainstream media just hates the president, so I don't know who to believe when it comes to information. Hopefully I'll be able to visit the Amazon forest to see on my own what he heck is going on. I think we are fighting the wrong enemy when we go after those to cut down the trees, instead of those to buy the wood--there's a lot of big names involved, that's for sure.
I see. Too many information wars going on everywhere these days... Finding relevant, unbiased sources is harder and harder. I also hope you will get to visit those places to find out what´s going on there. No matter who is responsible for the deforastion though, it should stop asap...
Yeah... I wish they'd sell to people who want to preserve, like Argentina did with Doung Tompkins. He's the (now dead) creator of The North Face, who created acres of protected land in Patagonia.
Může za změny podnebí a počasí člověk? Kosmas popisuje ničivé tornádo v Praze, 30. července 1119. Kosmas dále píše o náletu sarančat, povodních, vedrech, mrazech... Bylo to před 900 a více lety. Mohl za to tenkrát člověk? Asi ne.
Byla to tedy tenkrát čistě přírodní záležitost... A dnes už ne? Proč?
Přírodní záležitost... Takové vymírání živočišných a rostlinných druhů je taky přírodní záležitost. Akorát se to teď, kvůli lidské činnosti, děje víc než tisíckrát rychleji, než by tomu bylo bez lidského přičinění. To je fakt, to jsem si nevymyslel. A se změnou klimatu je to podobně. Viděl a četl jsem na tohle téma až příliš mnoho odborných dokumentů a studií, než aby mě pan Kosmas a jeho tornádo z roku 1119 přiměli změnit názor. Věda, fakta, čísla, statistiky. Současné. A velmi smutné. Bohužel...
No jo, jdeme slušně řečeno do háje a můžem si za to samí. A přesně jak říkáš, popírači budou vždycky, dokud se to nedotkne jich samotných.
A poskočilo mi srdce u té aténské fotky❤️. I přesto, že teď sedím těsně pod místem, odkud je to foceno, nenechává mě to chladnou (obzvlášť v těch nechutných 40 stupních)
Tvoje sympatie ke všemu řeckému jsou dobře známy, takže chápu ;) Ve mně pořád největší emoce budí ty fotky po řádění tornáda na jižní Moravě. Mám tu oblast moc rád a pochází z tama i část rodiny, tak to bylo i trošku osobní... No, jsem zvědav, co ještě letošní rok přinese. Jedno je jisté - těch extrémních projevů počasí bude bohužel určitě přibývat. Minimálně do doby, než lidstvo konečně začne brát ochranu životního prostředí vážně...
sorry, but all the destruction is caused by big weather manipulation, not by climate change
we had big floods in germany, which was also caused by weather manipulation,
River straightening, destruction of soils by agriculture (which makes them unable to absorb water because they are too compacted), and even soil sealing by huge concrete foundations for wind turbines in the middle of nature reserves forests.
in addition, dams in Germany have been deliberately allowed to fill up.
you can see how they still do the same shit:
http://talsperren.net/Fullstande/fullstande.html
no wonder that there is suddenly a fucking lot of water..
while still not warning the own population..
so yea.. we are now being forced to pay EVEN MORE TAXES to FUND EVEN MORE WEATHER MANIPULATION
with new nexrad (next generation radar), nanoparticles by uncle bill and much more
but please tell me the logic
human made climate change is bad - SO WE NOW NEED TO INTERVENE EVEN HARDER?!
fuck off
I think we might just use different terms for pretty much the same thing, or at least some aspects of it. Changing or manipulating the weather/climate, whatever... We can also call it human interference I guess.
yea.. and cuz human intervention was so bad we just need more massive human intervention to fix it!
sure!!
let's just play interventionism on everything for another 2 thousand years, shall we?
what could possibly go wrong ^^?
In decades to come, we will have to be prepared for the unexpected. What I am worried about most is, that the popular (=> voted for) solutions to decrease our negative impact on the environment, will only cause more harm. I have energy in mind in particular.
Good point. We need to take actions that will really help, not actions that will serve some populist politicans or lobbying groups...
And short-sighted activists!
The new statistics are alarming! I know of many things, but some I was not aware of.
Nothing seems normal anymore.
Right... And as I said in the post, this was just a little random sample. Events that I happened to notice. What many of them have in common though and what makes it so alarming is the attribute unprecedented...
weather change because of polution
Well not just pollution but it certainly plays a significant role in it too... Thanks for reading the post and leaving a comment.
@tipu curate 4
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