Irish Examiner view: We are in the red zone with climate change

Fri, 16 Jul, 2021 - 08:35

Some weeks, like this one, the climate collapse warnings are all too obvious, too common, and distressing.

More than 40 people have died and dozens of people are missing in Germany or Belgium after heavy flooding.

More than 60 wildfires were burning across at least 10 American states, with the largest, in Oregon, consuming an area nearly twice the size of Portland.

These fires came just a week after record temperatures in British Columbia and renewed warnings around the accelerating desertification of Spain.

Parts of Scandanavia are in the grip of a grinding heatwave, rivers fall to their bare bones waiting for rain.

If all of that is not convincing then the news that the Amazon rainforest now emits more carbon dioxide than it is able to absorb may be. Amazon emissions amount to a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

The giant forest was a carbon sink, absorbing the emissions driving the climate crisis, but is now causing its acceleration, researchers have found.

Forecasters say temperatures in Ireland may hit 27C or even 28C this weekend. Rabbits, headlights etc.

Europe floods: Search for missing goes on as death toll tops 90