France has just crossed the hottest summer in its history. This summer period, with overwhelming heat waves and temperatures around 40 ° C for more than twenty days, has seen three of the main risks associated with global warming material: damage to human health and land and sea ecosystems, water shortages and the decline in agricultural yields.
Consequence of these heat, drought – the most intense since the middle of the 20th e century – has affected almost all metropolitan regions. Throughout the country, gigantic fires have wiped thousands of hectares, especially in the southwest (in Gironde and in the Landes).
But these strong heat is not the only manifestation of global warming. In August, Corsica was swept away by an unprecedented storm, with gusts of wind more than 200 kilometers per hour, which caused significant material damage and cost the lives of five people.
“The planet reminds us of order”
The effects of climate change were felt on the entire globe. Pakistan experienced temperatures below average in August, a month marked by exceptional precipitation (243 % above average), causing floods that have affected millions of people and made more than 1,300 victims. In Cuba and the United States, there are also several million people who have suffered from damage caused by the passage of Hurricane Ian. According to the first estimates, the damage amounts to more than $ 100 billion, up never reached throughout the history of the United States.
According to climatologists like the French scientist Jean Jouzel, “climate change is underway, it is a certainty. And with more or less good will, our civilization is engaged in a new era. Reminds us to order and offers us a new development path, more sustainable, more respectful of our environment and our fellow men, whether our contemporaries or our descendants “.
This list may seem pessimistic, but fortunately, the history of humanity shows us that the human species is able to find solutions, when it decides.
20 teraoctets of data per day
At the end of the 1980s, governments around the world agreed to preserve the ozone layer that protects the earth by signing the Montreal protocol. Subsequently, the 2015 climate Paris agreement set clear objectives. Most European countries have committed to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.
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