Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
According to the World Meteorological Organisation, Europe is one of the fastest-heating regions in the world. Image Source: IANS
According to the Germany’s national weather forecaster Deutscher Wetterdeinst, temperatures in Germany’s Berlin reached 16 degrees Celsius on January 1, 2023, a January record.
The beginning of the New Year has not been chilling and freezing for Europe as many parts of the continent are witnessing warm winters. According to reports, some regions of the continent saw their warmest January on record this year. According to the Germany’s national weather forecaster Deutscher Wetterdeinst, temperatures in Germany’s Berlin reached 16 degrees Celsius on January 1, 2023, a January record. The Polish Capital Warsaw recorded a temperature of 19 degrees Celsius on mercury.
In Verdun, in northeastern France, the temperature peaked in the winter at 24.8 degrees Celsius, setting a record for France. The entire nation had its warmest New Year's Eve. According to reports, New Year's Eve in the Czech Republic was also the warmest ever. The nation's weather agency tweeted that New Year's Eve had been the warmest on record. 17.7 Celsius became a new monthly high in Prague. In Spain, Bilbao's temperatures on January 1 were comparable to the national average for July, and water use is restricted in some areas of Catalonia, including Barcelona. Due to human-induced climate change, heat waves are now more common, more powerful, and last longer.
According to the World Meteorological Organisation, Europe is one of the fastest-heating regions in the world, with temperatures rising over twice the global average in the last 30 years, threatening lives, economies and society.
Deforestation and desertification are the some of the major reasons behind the rising temperatures across the world. Around 5.7 billion people or 75 percent of the world's population will be affected by droughts by 2050, a United Nations report has warned. It also stated that within the next few decades, 129 countries will experience an increase in drought exposure forcing more than 216 million people to migrate by 2050.
Source: UNCCD
The report, Drought in Numbers, 2022 released by the global body has found out that drought frequency and duration has already increased by 29 percent since 2000. Droughts were also the deadliest natural disaster on a global scale (though they only represent 15 percent of natural disasters) killing 650,000 people between 1970 and 2019. The global economy lost around $124 billion in two decades due to drought. Europe has seen 45 droughts in the last 100 years resulting in more than USD 27.8 billion in economic losses. Over the past century, the highest total number of humans affected by drought were in Asia.
The report also posts a worrying picture for India. According to UN estimates, severe droughts have been estimated to have reduced India’s GDP by 2 to 5%. It also observed that India’s vulnerability is higher compared to most parts of the world with parts of South India and the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region being the most vulnerable compared to the rest of the country.
According to various reports, frequent and increasingly severe heat waves, irregular rainfall and reckless use of water resources are the main factor the country is staring at a major draught scare. Last year, in a report prepared by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), some 97.85 million hectares (mha) of India’s total geographical area (TGA) of 328.72 mha underwent land degradation during 2018-19. This means, close to 30 percent of country’s land during the period became degraded. Besides this, 83.69 mha underwent desertification in 2018-19.
The increase in desertification comes with severe implications not just for the environment, but also the health and livelihood of the people.
