Canada in flames – what is Germany doing?

Not only in Canada, but worldwide we are experiencing the most severe forest fires in decades. And the Canadian government now assumes that the country will continue to burn throughout the summer.

The worst is yet to come. Already, tens of thousands have had to leave their homes. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau primarily blames climate change for the devastating fires.

The extremely low precipitation is certainly also to blame. In 2023, there was 50 percent less than usual. But that, too, is a result of climate change. May 2023 was the driest in 150 years. That shows the interconnectedness of climate impacts.

By mid-June, an area the size of Costa Rica was on fire in Canada, over five million hectares.

And what is the German government doing in this situation while forests are burning worldwide?

Under pressure from the heartless and brainless FDP party, it is postponing the heating law from 2024 to 2028, and even further back the transport revolution. Although there can be no energy turnaround without a transport and heating turnaround. As a result, the risks for citizens and for the climate are becoming ever more threatening and expensive, and the dangers of forest fires ever greater.

Heat, drought, fire: Even now, just before the halfway point of the year, we must expect 2023 to be the most extreme heat year on record. The Atlantic is warmer than ever before and the ice at the poles is melting five times faster than glaciologists feared 20 years ago. Moreover, a new El Niño will cause an additional 0.4 degrees of global warming.

In other words, the 1.5 degrees of additional global warming over pre-industrial times agreed to in Paris at the 2015 World Climate Summit as just tolerable for the 21st century will not be reached sometime during this century, but probably as early as the end of 2023, perhaps even by the end of this June. At least that’s the prediction of scientists at the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Can we still be saved? The question has long ceased to be a theory.

Source

Franz Alt 2023 | Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)