For years now, Europe has experienced some of the hottest conditions in recorded history. More than that, they also experienced both record droughts and record floods, at different times.
Yet, it has never quite faced these conditions with the level of severity that it has been experiencing this summer. There were more record hot temperatures, and Europe faced several serious heat waves. Additionally, it suffered through the most severe droughts on records.
How bad is it?
Well, Google images of the Loire River currently, and you will likely be in for a shock. The Loire is the longest river in France, but it has largely run dry. In some spots, you can cross it on foot, and apparently without getting your feet wet. And I am not talking about crossing on a bridge or anything, either.
Indeed, the banks of the Loire are stunningly dry. Some pictures make it look like a desert cutting across green fields and valleys. It is an incredibly sobering and, frankly, depressing sight to behold. I remember visiting the Loire back in May of 2000. We visited the famous chateaux country of the Loire, and the land was very green and vibrant, in large part because the river was full.
That is not the case now.
Honestly, these feels like the first glimpse of the parts of climate change that we are going to have to get used to. Yes, climate change is real. This is exactly the kind of thing that scientists were warning about decades ago. Now, we are beginning to see the effects.
The scary thought is that this is just the beginning.
At what point are we going to acknowledge that this is not normal? That maybe it is time to do something about this? At the very least, when are we going to finally put aside "the debate" about whether climate change is real or not, since the science of the debate was proven right long ago. I think once the Bush administration in the United States acknowledged - reluctantly - that global warming is real, we could pretty much put the debate to bed.
But these days? When we are seeing record hot temperatures falling year after year, as new heat records are established When we regularly see record heat waves and droughts and floods in various parts of the world, and often in repeating cycles? One major world city, Cape Town, almost faced a water catastrophe a few years ago. It managed to avoid it, but it feels like this kind of critical situation will happen again and again. Probably some cities in the southwestern United States will be facing similar crises? It feels more like a question not so much of if, but when. They already have faced some serious, record droughts. But at what point will water shortages begin to reverse the population explosion in such places, and people begin to flock away from the West? I suspect that it not only will happen, but that it may very well begin in my own lifetime. Again, there is no real serious debate left as to whether this is happening. It seems pretty damn clear that it is happening.
We need to start asking ourselves what we do now? How do we prepare for this? Again, keep in mind that this seems to only be the beginning.
Scientists predicted that this kind of stuff would get more and more extreme over time. It has already grown quite extreme. Yet my suspicion is that we will be discussing this, and probably worse, in the not so distant future. Not what I want, but probably what we collectively deserve for the temporary privilege of allowing ourselves the conceit of doubting scientists and ignoring all of the numerous warning signs for years and even decades, even when scientists were urging us in every way that they could that this was real, and that what is happening would be happening.
Now, we're going to have a harder and harder time ignoring the clear signs of the reality of climate change.
Europe’s rivers run dry as scientists warn drought could be worst in 500 years by Jon Henley,13 Aug 2022.
Crops, power plants, barge traffic, industry and fish populations devastated by parched waterways
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/13/europes-rivers-run-dry-as-scientists-warn-drought-could-be-worst-in-500-years
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