Climate Change, Climate Emergency, Climate Crisis … it’s all we hear about these days,

But if that’s so, why are we not responding, and with the urgency that’s needed? This was a question that I put to a number of people to find out, and to see how I might change that.
Climate Change, Climate Emergency, Climate Crisis … it’s all we hear about these days,
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“We know it’s happening, but what can we do about it?”

“I need it explained to me, not in facts and figures, but how’s it going to affect me?”

“It’s all too late.”

I spent seven years, on and off, training to be an International Mountain Leader, so I get Weather … and Climate. The first is what we get every day, the second is the trend over several years, and it’s the latter we are interested in. Like many things in life, the weather tries to stay in balance. Heat moves towards cold, high pressure fills low pressure, but it’s complex and three dimensional. 

One important thing to realise is the air we breathe contains water vapour. You can’t see it unless it condenses and appears as clouds or mist. Where does this water vapour come from? Well, from any surface of water such as our rivers, seas and oceans and by evaporation, which doesn’t mean as in a  boiling kettle. Lick a finger and blow on it and you’ll notice a cooling sensation and you finger will start to dry, that’s evaporation. Like putting sugar in your tea, the hotter the tea, the more sugar it can dissolve, and the warmer our atmosphere gets, the more moisture it can hold. Warm air rises, and it takes this moisture with it. As it gets higher it cools and condenses into droplets, and when too heavy to stay up there, it falls as rain, or snow, if cold enough. So, why are we experiencing an increase in flooding and the so called rain bombs? There’s more water up there. 

Water vapour doesn’t just come from our seas and oceans. As the planet warms, it starts to suck water out of the ground, again by evaporation. This can lead to drought and since the industrial revolution, we have seen around a one degree rise in global temperatures resulting in unprecedented droughts around the globe. What does this mean? Food and water insecurity, so, an increase in prices and perhaps scarcity. How bad can that get? Well, Syria and surrounding countries are experiencing the worst drought in 900 years, so war is possible. 

When air molecules take to the sky, they leave fewer molecules and hence low pressure. High pressure elsewhere tries to balance that out and moves in, and that’s wind. The greater the difference, the stronger the wind. All this creates unstable air and can lead to thunder storms and lightning, even worse, destructive hurricanes and tornadoes. As our planet warms, we are seeing some unpredicted changes, one being the slowing of the Jet Stream; it’s also oscillating more. The Jet Stream and hurricanes have a complex relationship but we are seeing that hurricanes are more prolonged by this change thereby causing more devastation. 

So, what does this all mean for me, I hear you ask? That depends on where you live, but as most of you reading this will be in Europe: we are already seeing dramatic changes in the weather and that is caused by us burning fossil fuels, which have created an increase in greenhouse gases. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Consider pre-dinosaur times when the Earth was extremely hot, full of carbon dioxide and other dangerous gases all being spewed out by volcanos. Over millions of years, our clever planet has drawn all that carbon down into the oceans, into the soil and into the trees, and to such an extent that life was able to start. Now cut to about a hundred years ago when we started digging it up and burning it and pushing that carbon back into the air. These greenhouse gases prevent the temperature-balancing that our planet tries to achieve. If we don’t urgently stop this warming, we can expect flooding, droughts, migration when areas no longer support life, even conflict.

In the short term, I’d recommend that you have good house insurance, although the insurance companies are already stating they can’t keep paying out. Think about where you live; I haven’t yet spoken of sea level rises, and Britain has had a nasty habit of building on flood plains. Definitely consider switching to renewables for your energy and transport, the fossil fuel companies hold a monopoly, and recent increases and declaration of profits show how they enjoy that. We can make personal choices, we know what they are, but the real action is going to come from confronting governments, supporting activists brave enough to go out there to fight our corner. Be informed and share with others. Engage in articles such as this one. I welcome it, it shows I not working in complete isolation. And, above all, believe that we can act and save lives. 

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Go to the profile of Lara Reden
about 3 years ago

Thanks for sharing, Kevin!

Go to the profile of Rebecca Hansell
almost 3 years ago

This is so well explained, thank you for sharing Kevin :)