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Britain is enjoying some of the hottest temperatures of the year at the moment but high temperatures
are not just affecting this country.
The rest of Europe has also been hit by an exceptional heatwave - with temperatures hitting 40C in
several countries this week.
At least 30 people have died as a result of the hot weather and in fires that have raged across the
continent. Many people are asking if climate change is to blame. One heat wave does not prove that
the world is getting hotter, but this week's weather fits a global trend which has seen previous
records shattered with increasing regularity.
In nine out of the past 12 years, average temperatures worldwide have been higher than at any time
since records began in the 19th century and it is very likely that the 1990s were the warmest decade
for 1000 years.
For several months now, temperatures across Europe have been, on average, five degrees warmer.
Sea temperatures in the Mediterranean region are two to three degrees warmer and reached their peak
a month earlier than usual.
And here in the UK, temperatures for this last week are already around 10 degrees above average.
Dr John Turnpenny from the University of East Anglia, who helped draw up the latest forecast of how
global warming is likely to affect the UK, says there will be more changes to come.
"Certainly the evidence is very, very strong that the climate is changing and that we are likely to
see much more of the kind of weather that we've been seeing this week, in the future," he said.
"It's likely that a very hot August with spells of weather like we're seeing now, could occur
perhaps two years in every three by the last quarter of this century."
Climate change sceptics say the Earth's weather has always varied over time, and argue that natural
phenomena such as solar activity could be producing the changes observed in recent decades.
But the overwhelming consensus of the scientific world, is that the biggest single cause of global
warming is the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil. This adds heat-trapping gases to the
atmosphere.
International efforts to limit these emissions are proving extremely difficult to implement.
Yet even drastic cuts would only slow down climate change; the warming trend is fixed for decades to
come by the pollution of the past.
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Guy
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WARNING: may contain traces of irony. Contents may settle after posting.
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