Extreme Climate

As time goes by, it becomes more periodic to see headlines warning about global warming. Headlines such as "Irregular increase in temperature is consequence of disproportionate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions", "Extreme heat waves are affecting the north of the republic",  and "Ozone maxima plague in the Valley of Mexico: the third environmental contingency in a week".

Monterrey faced a drought, which lasted most of the summer and ended in a flood.

In Chiapas, Michoacan, Morelos and Oaxaca, the temperatures ranged between 40 and 45 degrees Celsius.

Baja California and Sonora had extreme downpours, moreover, on the last days of the month, Hurricane Kay passed through the territory.

While on the coast, the current news is tsunami alertness, in the centre of the country, the weather is rapidly going from burning to freezing and in the north, the droughts are more frequent than rain even when we are in summer. The questions that go through our heads are, What is happening? What is extreme weather? What is it due to? and How affect our lives?

Extreme weather is when a hot day turns into a heat wave and rainfall turns into catastrophic flooding.

Extreme weather is a destructive weather phenomenon, the realization that the consequences of global warming are happening here and now.

How does it affect us?

From 2011-2020 the global average temperature was recorded to be 1.09 °C higher than between 1850 and 1900.

Along with higher temperatures, there is a rise in sea level and an increase in the frequency of heat waves.

According to the United Nations' report of global warming entitled -"CLIMATE CHANGE 2021" physical science basis- it is estimated that in approximately 19 years, the global temperature will increase by 1.5 °C or more, leading to even more extreme weather than the one we are witnessing now.

I live in Mexico so I have always been used to intermediate climates, never too cold, never too hot. 

But the more well-known the term climate change becomes, the more influential it is in our lives.

In May 2018, my relatives and I went to Michoacan, days later when we decided to leave an unexpected rain started, but we didn't realize it was extreme rain until a tree fell directly in front of us and when we tried to get out of the car the water was up to our ankles. That day we were not able to get home, but we saw lost crops, and people carrying water out of their houses.

We saw the painful image that extreme weather and global warming were neither ominous news headlines nor a strategy of the global power to destroy Mexico or much less the influence of Mercury Retrograde. That rain that almost cost our being, took both people's lives and months of labour. It was a consequence, the new reality.

Extreme weather is a climatic threat that affects the environment and our quality of life, yet this procedure is natural with human intervention the process accelerates significantly. 

Precipitation on Earth has become more intense since 1980 because warmer air can hold more water.

It is time to do something, to act so we can stop the climate breakdown and with it the extreme weather, if not we run the risk of fires, droughts, floods, extreme rains or weather that does not correspond to the "season of the year".

If not the next time I go to Michoacan, if the rain becomes more extreme, maybe that tree could fall on us, and maybe the floods could wipe out the orchards and corn crops.

Maybe if we don't do our role to reduce these outcomes, we could all end up with a temperature one or two degrees higher either in the worst scenario we could face an environmental catastrophe that could end our lives as we know.

It is time to accept, asset and do what we can to reverse the extreme weather or the world that awaits us.

References:

The physical science basis: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_FullReport.pdf

Risk in rains and warm waves, hot air:

https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2021/08/09/crisis-climatica-causas-cientificos-trax/

Information about extreme climate:

https://www.fundacionaquae.org/clima-extremo-la-amenaza-mas-importante-del-mundo-segun-foro-economico-mundial/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6H9Q8wB4h8&t=253s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rzAluuejUw&t=317s

Temperature in Mexico:

 https://www.unionedomex.mx/2022/04/20/ola-de-calor-2022-aumenta-2-grados-centigrados-temperatura-promedio-en-mexico/