Don’t be caught off guard.
The instruments we use to measure the natural world have been sending back data as pictured.
As a result of these changes we are beginning to feel the impacts as projected by the models.
For example, as the 2023 European summer gets underway:
In southern European countries such as Portugal, Spain and Italy, the severe drought and scarce rain are forcing water restrictions. In these countries there is a call on citizens to limit water use to the bare minimum. In Italy, the government has declared a national drought emergency in several regions of the country. Drinking water in these regions is becoming scarce, forests are prone to burning and there has been observed glacier melt in the Dolomites (https://www.dw.com/en/water-scarcity-eu-countries-forced-to-restrict-drinking-water-access/a-62363819)
In Germany, low water levels affected the inland shipping operations on the Upper and Middle Rhine in 2022. The German Farmers’ Association has issued a harvest warning for 2023, saying that without imminent rain, this year’s harvests could be severely affected by projected late-summer heat waves.
In France, four departments are already subject to restrictions as of March 1, 2023: Ain, Isère, Bouches-du-Rhône and the Pyrénées-Orientales. Residents of these areas are forbidden to water their gardens, fill their pools or wash their cars. France’s nuclear power plants, which rely on water for cooling, had to reduce their output due to the heat last year and are projecting the same challenges this summer (See https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-03/edf-to-curb-nuclear-output-as-french-energy-crisis-worsens)
Adaptation to this “new normal” should be high on the agenda.
