Thursday 15 July 2021

Climate Change Can Come Anywhere?

I was, perhaps, being unduly optimistic (not at all like me). I confirmed in an earlier post that I was deeply concerned about climate change. I suggested, however, I was unlikely to live long enough to see really dangerous effects of climate change here, in my own little backwater. The flooding events in West Germany certainly bring things much 'closer to home' in a non-geographical sense (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/14/firefighter-drowns-and-army-deployed-amid-severe-flooding-in-germany). The summer floods in Rhineland-Palatinate (especially in the town of Schuld) and North Rhine-Westphalia, have caused buildings to collapse, washed away cars etc. There have been almost 40 confirmed deaths with around another 70 people missing. The floods have even spread into neighbouring areas of Belgium. The effects of climate change (as the name suggests) can be manifested anywhere! Climate has no boundaries.

1 comment:

Paul Brain said...

The death toll in Germany and Belgium is now very substantial. I suppose it's necessary to reiterate that this single event doesn't prove it was caused by climate change. You can only say that for certain, when extreme weather events become more frequent. That does, however, appear to be the case, at least in the US and Canada, and we haven't got decades to check out the data!

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