Massive climate changes can no longer be avoided

The opportunity to stabilize the climate system with relatively little effort had been missed, it was said at the start of the 13th Extreme Weather Congress in Hamburg. This means that massive changes on Earth can no longer be avoided.

“We must accept that the 1.5 degree limit will be exceeded. “The Paris Framework Agreement has effectively failed on this point,” said Jochem Marotzke, director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. “This also means that only with enormous efforts will it be possible to keep warming below the 2 degree limit.” We are currently on track to a 3 degree world by the end of the century.

Heat records and forest fires of new proportions
“Global air and water temperatures have never been as high as this year,” a statement to Congress said. “Never before have heat records and forest fires reached such magnitude as in 2023.” The five to six degrees higher water temperatures in the Mediterranean would have led to record levels of evaporation and subsequent precipitation in Europe and North Africa. “Due to the randomness in the chaotic system of the atmosphere, the extreme heat and drought phases we experienced in southern Europe did not occur in Germany. It would have been possible.”

The weather in Europe is becoming increasingly extreme
The EU Environment Agency EEA warned at the end of spring: “Due to our changing climate, the weather in Europe is becoming more extreme.” According to the agency, heat waves are becoming more frequent, more intense and lasting longer. of climate change. The summer of 2022 was already a “summer of heat waves”.

“We can all still see the terrible images of the storm disasters in Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey and Libya,” said Tobias Fuchs, board member of the German Weather Service. “International climate research agrees: any further global warming will lead to a rapid increase in weather-related natural hazards.” According to Fuchs, people must better prepare for the catastrophic consequences of extreme weather, such as droughts, forest fires and floods.

“Climate protection should be a once-in-a-century issue”
The meteorologist and weather presenter Sven Plöger called for stronger climate protection. Ideas are needed to get everyone involved. “Climate protection must become a once-in-a-century issue in a socially and environmentally enhanced market economy without hyper-consumption,” he said. “Politicians are being called upon to finally create the guardrails that are still missing.”