Climate crisis: the effects on everyday life

Abnormal temperatures. Hot and dry in the North, semi-desert in the South. More fires, reduced soil fertility. And a very high risk of flooding.

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EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

EFFECTS OF THE CLIMATE CRISIS

La climate crisis It can't be told through numbers alone, which become tiresome in the long run: the changing temperatures, the ones that should be dropping but instead are rising, the fluctuations over the months. There's more. And it's what we see every day. With the hot and dry climate in the global North, and semi-desert in the South. With agricultural land drying out and becoming less fertile. With water shortages. With the constant and anomalous floods and inundations.

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  • TROPICAL CLIMATE

In Italy, in particular, if we remain static in the face of global warming, we will experience increasingly volatile weather patterns , instability to which we are unaccustomed, within two major geographic trends: hot and dry in the North, semi-desert in the South. And high temperatures have a direct impact on our lifestyles: according to a recent study, a one-degree increase by 2050 could double the number of sleepless nights in the United States, with 110 million additional cases each year. Meanwhile, with each passing year, with each passing month, they become the hottest in recorded history. This was also the case in 2023, and unless there are significant changes, it will continue to be this way for at least the next twenty years.

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  • DAMAGE TO AGRICULTURE

To get a complete idea of ​​the effects of climate change described in the previous point, we can take a look at the map and draw the following conclusions. With these temperatures, Italian agriculture , especially fruit and vegetables, becomes highly vulnerable . Tourism suffers, as we are a popular destination also due to our pleasant climate. And then there are the risks of flooding.

  • FLOODS AND INFLATIONS

Cyclone activity and flood- related disasters have been exceptionally intense in the last decade across the Atlantic basin, driven by global warming. We've seen this clearly in times of disaster (which we loosely define as "natural"). And in Italy? The risk of flooding has become extremely high in the lowlands of Veneto (including Venice) and Emilia-Romagna. Floods, meanwhile, are particularly severe in some regions of the North, such as Lombardy and Liguria, and in the South, such as Calabria and Sicily. This is also due to the fragility of the region, which is very vulnerable.

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  • FIRE RISK

With such dry summers, early springs, and a semi-desert climate in the South, the risk of wildfires (aside from the not insignificant factor of arsonists) skyrockets. And here, the South risks a massacre, both environmental and tourism-related.

  • DESERTIFICATION

In the world's tropical regions, global warming is resulting in increasingly arid deserts. This poses enormous problems for populations already struggling with water scarcity. As for us Italians, we are not immune to the desertification effect: in practice, these unusual climate variations are reducing soil fertility . And here the damage is unfolding in a cascade.

  • THE GLACIER ALARM

Again, there's no need to give in to alarmism, but the melting of glaciers, at a truly worrying rate, is being recorded by everyone. And not just in Greenland, for example. Of course: there's even the advantage, if you like, of some areas in the Far North, like Siberia and Canada, where rising temperatures, by melting glaciers, will make some areas arable and habitable . But in reality, no one needs this change, while we're all worried that the melting of polar ice is causing the sea level to rise . And this isn't good for anyone. Between now and the year 2.100, climatologists predict a sea level rise of a minimum of 53 centimeters to a maximum of 97.

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  • THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE FORESTS

In Italy, we have wonderful forests , among the most beautiful in the world: we have photographed and described some of them. But with these high temperatures, the forests' capacity to absorb CO2 continues to decline. This leads to an increase in pollution that spreads from the forests throughout the country. These upheavals lead to the destruction of entire ecosystems, which inevitably threatens the survival of numerous animal species.

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  • CO2

It is a gas formed through natural combustion processes (forest fires, volcanic eruptions), biological processes (the respiration of plants, animals, and humans), and artificial processes (power plants, steel mills, engines, heating systems). This last category is the only one we have the power to act on, and it is urgently necessary to do so. The Paris Agreement represents a step forward—though still not sufficient—in curbing emissions, which is why it is crucial that the United States (one of the world's leading producers) honor its commitment.

  • THE DAMAGE OF GREENHOUSE GASES

This effect is one of the main consequences of excessive CO2 emissions. These gases, in fact, have the property of retaining the heat radiated by the Sun in the atmosphere, as if the air were a closed greenhouse. Therefore, if the percentage of CO2 in the air increases, the temperature of the atmosphere increases, with all the consequences we know.

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CLIMATE CRISIS AND UNESCO SITES

The alarm comes from research conducted by UNESCO , the UN agency for culture, in collaboration with UNEP , the UN Environment Programme. In the report " World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate ," the two agencies highlight the risks faced by 31 sites in 29 countries. The list includes, in addition to our own city on the lagoon, Stonehenge , the city of Cartagena , the golden mountains of Altai in Russia, some of the statues of Easter Island , the marvelous mud skyscrapers of the Dogon people of Mali , the Norwegian fjords , and the Australian Great Barrier Reef . The Statue of Liberty in New York, for example, was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and is increasingly at risk from severe weather as the years pass.

CLIMATE CRISIS AND VENICE

Venice , among the World Heritage Sites, is one of the most at risk . The danger is considered imminent due to coastal erosion and rising sea levels , both a consequence of the melting of polar ice caps caused by rising temperatures . Along with Venice, some moai on Easter Island and the Galapagos Islands also share the same danger . Mass tourism can also exacerbate the situation: the 10 million people who pass through the lagoon every year certainly stress and strain the city.

CLIMATE CRISIS AND CORAL REEFS

Another target of climate change is the Great Barrier Reef , located off the northeastern coast of Australia . Made up of over 2.900 individual coral reefs and 900 islands, it extends for 2.300 kilometers. This priceless natural heritage, already endangered by Australian port expansion plans, has been hit this year by a very serious bleaching event due to pollution and ocean warming . High temperatures cause corals to lose their natural pink-reddish color and turn white . This phenomenon occurs because, as a result of rising water temperatures, corals expel the algae that give them their color and are essential for their nutrition. Bleaching, therefore, is a prelude to death. Scientists estimate that the phenomenon currently underway this year has affected 93% of the individual reefs , a much more serious event than those that occurred in 1998 and 2002.

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