Despite alarming reports of increasingly frequent heat waves, forest fires and storms, German climate researcher Mojib Latif does not consider the fight against global warming hopeless: “Scientists assume that the ‘point of no return’ has not yet been reached”.
“It would still be possible to limit global warming to the level specified in the Paris climate agreement — that is, to well below 2 degrees compared to pre-industrial times, preferably to 1.5 degrees,” the professor at the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel told the German news agency in Berlin. Latif was responding to warnings from UN Secretary-General António Guterres. He called climate change “out of control”.
Effects already “catastrophic”
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has calculated that to meet the 1.5 degree target, global emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases must fall by 48 percent in 2030 and 80 percent in 2040 compared to 2019.
The planet is currently warming up by about 1.1 degrees, in Germany it is already 1.6 degrees. Latif said: “The effects such as heat, drought and heavy rains are already catastrophic in many parts of the world.” Last year was the warmest summer in Europe since records began, with tens of thousands of heat-related deaths.
Many problems caused by warm oceans
Regarding the currently extremely high temperatures in the world’s oceans, including the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, Latif said: “On the one hand, warming is putting pressure on marine ecosystems, for example tropical corals – the dreaded bleaching of corals is becoming more common. On the other hand, warming is leading to a drop in oxygen levels in the oceans. And there is a risk that the oceans will absorb less of the CO₂ that humans emit into the atmosphere, leading to an accelerated global warming.”
In addition, the expansion of water associated with warming contributes to sea level rise, the researcher said. Higher temperatures also lead to a higher rate of evaporation, making more energy available in the atmosphere and making extreme weather events more frequent and intense.
Human adaptation not possible?
Latif recently pointed out that German society and economy cannot adapt to a two to three degrees warmer world. “This is a big mistake. There are limits to adaptability,” Latif told dpa. “How do you adapt to temperatures well above 40 degrees, such as more frequent heavy rains? How is agriculture supposed to survive without rain?”
Source: Krone
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