We are hearing in the media how more and more extreme and damaging weather events are occurring. This past week, devastating Category 5 Hurricane Irma swept through the Caribbean islands and Florida, leaving behind heavy flooding, dozens of deaths and millions of homes damaged and without power. This hurricane has been the largest recorded in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
In addition, other extreme phenomena such as abundant droughts, floods in Italy, tropical storms, etc. It is being logged continuously. These are the effects of climate change that awaits us in the future, increasingly accentuated and more intense. Is this the worst face of climate change?
Irma arrives after Hurricane Harvey in the southern United States and the devastation of the overlooked monsoon in South Asia, that has left more than 1.200 dead. Closer, in Italy, heavy torrential rains have also left several dead. Meanwhile, in our country we read headlines such as "Spain suffers the worst drought in the last 20 years" or "Spanish reservoirs are at 43% of their capacity"which is affected by climate change.
Now another Category 1 hurricane (Hurricane Maria) will strike again in the Caribbean Islands. A second hurricane, José, is also active in the Atlantic and has triggered tropical storm warnings in the northeastern United States.
Is climate change behind all this? Scientists have been warning for years that greenhouse gas emissions caused by global warming are triggering changes in the planet's climate, the effects of which are direct on extreme weather events, which are related to the differences between climate change and global warming. Greater intensity and frequency of droughts, floods, tropical storms, hurricanes, etc.
Although the influence of climate change and its devastating effects on human beings are clear, political and economic interests continue to take precedence over actions to stop it, as evidenced by studies on the effects of climate change in Germany.
It must be clarified that climate change is not the one that has directly caused Hurricane Irma, or Harvey, but it has made them stronger and creates more chances for more hurricanes.
Donald Trump, the denialist president who months ago abandoned the fight against climate change and withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, has declared Florida a "catastrophic zone," while Houston, Texas, continues to drain Harvey's deluge of just a few years ago. weeks.
We have to act against climate change and not debate whether it exists or not, since its effects are more than evident.
