Deadly heat waves scorch the Earth

The summer of 2018 has been extremely harsh to say the least. The last few months have seen deadly fires scorching swaths of the Northern Hemisphere from California to Arctic Sweden and down to Greece on the sunny Mediterranean. Drought and sweltering heat in Europe has turned verdant land barren, while people in Japan and Korea are dying from record-breaking heat.

Since the beginning of May, 119 people have died in Japan from ongoing heat wave. There have also been floods which have destroyed many villages. Officials in South Korea have stated that 29 persons have died from the after-effects of hot weather. Ninety-one people in Greece have died in wildfires. It started in forests and then swept down into villages on the sea coast, well known all over Europe as cherished tourist destinations. Latest reports indicate that the fires in California have taken at least eight lives. Temperature reached 48 degree Celsius in Death Valley of California. Spain and Portugal are also experiencing an exceptionally hot week where an extreme heat wave has killed some persons and pushed temperatures toward record levels. In fact on August 04 temperatures hit record highs of 46 degrees Celsius - something that normally happens in the middle of deserts in Saudi Arabia. In these European countries authorities have closed playgrounds and called on people to avoid picnics and outdoor activities that holiday-makers normally associate with summer in Europe.

A total of four nuclear reactors have been closed down in France due to the continuing heat wave. The French power company EDF has stated that this measure was taken to avoid raising too high the temperature of rivers where nuclear plants draw water to cool down reactors and then pour it back in.

The anxiety resulting from the extraordinary hot weather led to fitting Austrian police dogs with shoes so that they could patrol a beach volleyball tournament

Scientists have pointed out that the major greenhouse gases -- carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide -- all rose to record levels last year. The global average carbon dioxide concentration was the highest ever recorded, and higher than at any point in the past 800,000 years, according to ice-core data.

The symptoms of climate change have been dramatic. This summer has made it clear that climate change is here and is affecting the entire globe. It is on the doorsteps of everyday Americans, Europeans and Asians, and the best evidence shows it will get much worse. It is also clear that this dynamics of climate change is human-induced. Climate scientists are suggesting that deadly heat waves will become more frequent and occur in more places on the planet in coming decades.

A GRIM REPORT CARD: A report released on August 01 by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has given the Earth a grim report card. The NOAA report has noted that last year was probably the second hottest year on record, depending on the dataset used, following three record-breaking hot years. It was the hottest year on record without an El Niño, the natural weather event that adds to the warming of the seas and the whole planet. A new record for global sea levels was set. Unprecedented coral bleaching occurred, and both the Arctic and the Antarctic saw record-low levels of sea ice, as warmer air and seas continued the trend of thinning out the polar ice.

Some are pointing fingers to the increase in spending on oil and gas during 2017. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) this has also pushed up the share of fossil fuels in energy supply investment for the first time since 2014. On the other hand, investment in renewable energy dropped 7.0 per cent and demand for coal has risen largely to keep Asia's furnaces burning as the region rapidly develops.

Karsten Haustein from the World Weather Attribution Project, part of Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute has remarked that improved technology now allows them to understand the links between what they are seeing and climate change. It has been observed that there are alarming signs that the planet may be in worse shape than ever before.

Angela Dewan of the CNN has recalled that US President Donald Trump announced his decision last year to pull the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement. This was a terrible blow to global action on climate change. The US is the world's second-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. The disassociation of the US has significantly weakened the scope and potential impact factor of the Climate Agreement.

However, contrary to President Trump's belief, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication has pointed that more and more Americans are starting to accept the fact that climate change is taking place. Yale Program's Director, Anthony Leiserowitz and other analysts have mentioned that this understanding that climate change is at least happening has a lot to do with what people are seeing and experiencing around themselves. "People are increasingly connecting the dots when they see these extreme weather events happening across the United States. People are beginning to see the larger pattern that climate change is actually affecting the weather today. And that's a new concept for many Americans." Leiserowitz has said.

FLAWS IN CLIMATE AGREEMENTS: There are legitimate criticisms of the 2015 Paris Agreement. It suffers from major flaws - it is not legally binding and it is unenforceable. This Agreement's predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol, was much stronger. It set ambitious and legally binding emissions reduction targets. However it also had its problems. It included only developed nations. That meant that China, the world's biggest carbon emitter, was not obliged to make reductions. This was always a sticking point for the US. Kyoto's other major flaw was that although it was legally binding, no one was ever sanctioned for over-polluting. It eventually persuaded President George W. Bush in 2001 to pull the United States out of the Kyoto agreement that Congress had never ratified.

Nevertheless, there are certain positive aspects pertaining to the Paris Climate Agreement that needs to be noted.  It engaged more than just developed nations. In addition, those who have ratified it had to make pledges to combat climate change as their countries saw fit. They are also obliged to report on their mitigation and adaptation measures transparently. This creates accountability within the international paradigm. Another success of Paris was the recognition that the world should try to contain warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, or two degrees as a worst-case scenario. The agreement, however, did not include the legally binding goals to reduce carbon emissions that were sought by Europe but largely opposed by the US.

CALL FOR STRONGER COMMITMENTS: This summer's heat wave has persuaded leading climatologists and environmental groups to call on the countries of the world to make stronger commitments. Claire Norman, speaking for Friends of the Earth in the UK has suggested that "All … nations have to ditch incremental action for transformational change." It is hoped that the United Kingdom will be more pro-active after their hot summer of 2018.

An international team of researchers, led by Mora and the University of Hawaii at Manoa, has completed analysing hundreds of historic heat waves to quantify what weather conditions posed the greatest risk of death in humans. Using data from 783 lethal heat waves in 164 cities and across 36 countries, the researchers have discovered a common threshold where the heat wave becomes deadly. This threshold is driven not only by the air temperature, but also relative humidity. It has been ascertained that higher-latitude locations will warm more than the tropics under global warming. Consequently, this study indicates that a greater threat to life will be in the more humid, tropical locales. Dr. Marshall Shepherd, Director of the University of Georgia's Atmospheric Sciences Program, has added another interesting fact. He has noted that we also often overlook the impact that cities have on the intensity of heat waves, through the "urban heat island effect." Those who live in Dhaka in the midst of little greenery and open space will vouch for that.

One of the biggest concerns for Bangladesh is climate variability and its consequential effects. The country has sought technical and financial assistance from the developed world to facilitate its efforts directed towards mitigation and adaptation measures. The problem is further compounded by high population density.  All need to work together to contain the deadly effects of global warming.

Muhammad Zamir, a former Ambassador, is an analyst specialised in foreign affairs, right to information and good governance.

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