It's just over halfway through the year but catastrophic events from all over the globe have made world scientists believe that a 'long-feared era of disastrous climate change' has come.
From extreme rainfall in Germany and China, to brutal droughts in the west, and relentless wildfires and heat waves from the Pacific Northwest, the disasters that we have today tells a lot about the global warming effects of uncontrolled human activities, after which humans themselves would suffer later.
Phoscheck drop during the 2013 Springs Fire, one of an ever growing list of wildfires in California due to hot, dry conditions and drought.
Greenhouse gas emissions and burning fossil fuels had gotten the atmosphere of the world today 1.1 degrees Celsius hotter than it was in the pre-industrial era. Many studies suggest that these numbers have real-world consequences for billions of people and increasing threat to agriculture, human migrations and even wars.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that extreme heat waves could occur around every six years at the 1.5-degree threshold, with 2 degrees of warming expected every four years.
An IPCC study shows that human influence had attributed to climate extremes such as in heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and tropical cyclones.
Potential occurrence of weather-related catastrophes that once seemed off
"The IPCC report underscores the overwhelming urgency of this moment, and the upcoming UN climate summit in Glasgow needs to be a turning point," U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said.
"The world must come together before the ability to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is out of reach. As the IPCC makes plain, the impacts of the climate crisis, from extreme heat to wildfires to intense rainfall and flooding, will only continue to intensify unless we choose another course for ourselves and generations to come."
In hopes to 'do more to combat climate change', a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill pursued by democrats is being pledged.
"The future of our planet looks bleak until we do something, right now," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Authorities also warn a range of catastrophic climate change impacts, like "record-setting megafires, unprecedented flash flooding, intense drought, and poor air quality."
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Playing defense to withstand the weather disasters
Top scientists can only tell us to "get used" to weather disasters unless the worst-case scenario can be eliminated by reducing fossil fuel emission.
"I think people are more and more starting to get scared," said Jim Kossin, senior scientist with climate risk firm The Climate Service and IPCC author for the chapter on extremes. "I think that'll help to change people's attitudes. And hopefully that'll affect the way they vote."
Scientists are virtually certain that heat waves will increase its frequency and might last longer. Oceans will lock more heat ice shelves will continue to melt for decades, regardless human efforts to push tides higher to flood cities and propel storm surges further inland.
The intensity and quick succession of these events are so fast that scientists 'barely have enough time to recalibrate their models'. Although new report highlights increased precision such as understanding the behavior of clouds, allowing scientist to "narrow considerably the range of possible futures."
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