Is there hope for 2023?
– The climate in 2022 was catastrophic.
So says Bjorn Hallvard Samsit of the Cicero Center for Climate Research.
– We suffered from heat waves, fires, droughts and hurricanes. This is the face of climate change, which takes the extreme events we’re already used to and makes them three orders of magnitude worse.
Samset is worried about what the new year will bring. He expects more severe weather – and some surprises.
But it’s not just dark.
Because in 2022, something good for the climate will also happen, the researcher believes. Something that could be the start of something big.
the heat
Climate year 2022 has started with a blistering heatwave.
In March, India and Pakistan struck in full force. For two months, the thermometer showed up to 50 degrees Celsius. More than 90 people died in the heat.
A schoolgirl in Prayagraj, northern India, shields herself from the sun with a white scarf, mask and umbrella:
Drought
After the heat, dehydration followed.
It was three continents You are severely dehydrated Synchronized. Climatologists called it “unique”.
Rivers in Europe dried up this summer. historical objects from the riverbed.
Green parks turned yellow, and people bathed in the fountains—before they were also closed to conserve water.
In the fields near Strasbourg in France, yellow sunflowers are transformed into a sad sight:
In Somalia, a hard-pressed population has tried to survive its worst drought in 40 years. Babies died of malnutrition, nursing mothers lost their milk, and old people walked miles in the heat in search of water.
– They are fighting a fight to the deathSomalia Special Envoy told VG.
He believed that the climate crisis was the main cause. It has not rained in Somalia for four years.
The four legged guys have had a tough year too.
In Kenya, the country’s famous wildlife is under attack from climate change.
The prolonged drought made it difficult for the animals to find enough water.
More than 200 elephants have died due to dehydration Reuters.
Like this elephant found in Shaba National Park in September:
the flood
Then, after a drought, it rained in several places.
The annual monsoon rains have not stopped in Pakistan. the Crazy amounts of rainmixed with a record amount of meltwater from the glaciers of the Himalayas, and settled on top of the dry land.
At the end of August Pakistan has declared a climate disaster. A third of the country was then under water. And it still stands Crisis in the line after the flood.
fire
The extreme weather at the end of the year did not subside.
exactly the contrary.
In the last days of the year, parts of Chile were hit by a wildfire that got completely out of control. The authorities were forced to declare a state of emergency.
A woman gets a dog to safety from the flames outside Santa Juana, south of Concepción:
winter storm
In the United States, a blizzard took many by surprise.
Millions of people had to seek shelter over Christmas, and many more are left It snowed in. More than 30 people have died so far “Winter Storm of the Century”.
researchers in the United States It is now hotly debated Whether global warming is also leading to more severe winter weather remains to be seen.
In Charleston, South Carolina, a fountain froze to ice on Christmas Eve:
search
– We are already seeing the effects of climate change here and now, this is not something that lies in the future.
So says Siri Eriksen, professor of climate and development at the Norwegian University of Ecology and Life Sciences (NMBU).
It outlines what the United Nations Climate Panel and a number of international researchers have shown for several years:
Climate change brings with it more severe weather.
– Extreme weather did not originate with climate change, but it is becoming more intense and frequent. What used to happen every 100 years might happen every ten years instead. It’s dramatic, says Eriksen.
Many climatologists said previously For VG they were surprised by all the severe weather.
Surprisingly, it came in a year when the Pacific Ocean was still in a cold phase called La Niña stageLa Niña stageLa Niña is a condition of unusually low surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator. La Niña is the opposite of El Niño. The alternation of El Niño and La Niña affects the weather over much of the Earth, and influences the global average temperature. Source: The Great Norwegian DictionaryWe also expect there to be milder heat waves, says Samset in Cicero.
By spring, La Niña will be receding by all accounts. Then the globe will become much warmer.
And ski tourists in Riezlern in Austria are likely to have a narrower ski run next year:
anticipation
– There is no doubt that severe weather is coming. Samst says: We will see heat waves, devastating rains, floods and major wildfires in 2023.
This year may be the hottest year on record.
– I am definitely worried about what the years 2023 and 2024 will be like. What worries me most is that climate change is happening very quickly and is becoming more and more dramatic. We can’t keep up, says Samst.
– There will be surprises in 2023 as well.
The flood in Pakistan has taken on dimensions few expected:
Change
Most extreme weather events have occurred elsewhere in the world.
How does the climate crisis affect Norway?
It’s hard to predict, Samset says, because it will vary from year to year. In 2022, for example, we’ve had droughts.
The lockers were abnormally low water, Electricity prices have skyrocketed.
At the Randsfjorden in Jevnaker, the water level was so low that large sand bars were exposed:
But warmer and wetter climate is still the key word for what Norway has in store.
More precipitation, historically heavy rains, warm period and worse snow conditions sums up Samset.
What many people may not know is that Norway is heating up much faster than the rest of the world. When sea ice melts, the ocean absorbs heat all year long. Then it gets much warmer in the north.
background: The ‘impossible’ climate goal
In Svalbard, the temperature has averaged four degrees higher in the past 50 years, according to the Aftenposten:
Hope
Not everything is dark. Luckily.
In the past year, several things have happened that have given climate scientists hope.
These are what they highlight as landmarks:
Somewhat surprisingly, the darkest film from 2022 also brings a glimmer of light.
Because although many countries have set their old coal plants on fire again in response to Putin’s cutting off gas to Europe, many believe that the green wave is on the rise.
– I see a strong commitment to renewable energy in the European Union, says Tore Vurevik, director of the Nansen Center and professor at the University of Bergen.
– Solar and wind energy have become cheaper, and the war has clearly shown us that we cannot depend on either fossil energy or Russia.
Furivek believes that despite the fact that it depends on the weather, renewable energy is the safest. Because it is something that all countries can produce themselves.
In Marville in France, a solar park has been created:
Samset in Cicero believes that the green shift is closer than before.
– Many arrows are starting to point in the right direction, even if they are not going fast enough. At least we’ve started.
And pace is everything.
This was confirmed by Siri Eriksen at NMBU in:
What we do now determines what will happen in the coming decades in terms of how dramatic climate change will be.
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