The Earth is Burning, Scientists Are Alarmed: Why Aren’t Politicians and People Concerned?

Last week was the hottest on Earth in at least 150 years. The entire Northern Hemisphere experiences a summer in which human life becomes increasingly difficult without air conditioning. And An El Nino phenomenon promises to worsen the situation in the coming days. Scientists are alarmed by the pace of climate change. But this concern does not seem to permeate politicians, election campaigns and the majority of the population. We slowly (literally) cook like frogs and don’t realize it, know it or care.

If a frog is suddenly dropped into boiling water, it will jump out, but If you put the frog in warm water and bring it to a slow boil, it will not sense danger and will cook and die.. That’s how we are. We know it, we see it, and our ears are pierced with news of what is happening forever. But we don’t care. We have a massive inability to react to dire threats that emerge gradually rather than suddenly. They notify us of it, they warn us, we have time to solve the problem, but we don’t. We love to cook and die. Yes, we also know that enormous economic interests work to prevent anything from happening.

Last week was the hottest in the history of the planet. The arrival of a strong El Niño event, which emerges from Pacific tidal conditions, will further increase global temperatures. Unprecedented and extreme weather events around the world. North Atlantic temperature reaches “Out of normal” temperatureAccording to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

On Tuesday, July 7, the Earth’s average global temperature exceeded 17 degrees Celsius. A stranger might say it’s a very pleasant day for walking, but for it to be average, it must be 50+ degrees in many places. For example, it was 52 degrees in Seville. According to the director Woodwell Climate Research Centerwas Highest average temperature “in at least 100,000 years.” These records have become further evidence of global warming caused by human greenhouse gas emissions and have unleashed a climate crisis that is manifesting itself in increasingly strong and frequent extreme weather events.

“It’s not a record to celebrate, and it won’t be a record for a long time because the Northern Hemisphere’s summer season is two months away and the El Niño event in the Pacific adds,” he warned. Friedrich OttoTeacher UK Grantham Institute for Climate Change. In Mexico alone, 112 people have died from the heat since March. A wave of extremely high temperatures swept north, rendering a good portion of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico nearly uninhabitable. 44 people have died in a single day in the state of Bihar in India. Beijing endured its sixth heat wave in three consecutive days above 45 degrees. England had its warmest June since temperature records began in 1884.

Earth is already 1.2°C warmer than pre-industrial levels. If we pass the 1.5-degree limit on global warming, the world’s leading climate scientists agree. The consequences can be irreversible. The WMO warns that the latest studies suggest we will reach that limit before 2027. This El Niño year — which comes after the planet has spent three years under the influence of La Niña, the cooling phase of the Pacific cycle — is known as “Push global temperatures into uncharted territory.”

However, the crisis does not seem to have the same urgency for politicians around the world to continue to immerse themselves in the issues that matter most to them. Obviously, poverty and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few are causing disasters as big or bigger than what climate change is bringing us. But how do you aim? Carlo BontempoDirector Copernicus Climate Change Serviceof European union, “There is no greater problem than leaving a planet.”. “It’s still seen as a long-term event. “It’s not going to happen now. It’s going to happen sometime in the future. We have to eat today or we want democracy today. That’s what’s in the minds of the majority of people, and politicians know, and they’re not acting because it won’t bring them votes now.” Let’s see in the next election’, they say.. They talk a little about the matter to appease the journalists, put up some solar panels, but nothing more. So the same behavior is proliferating everywhere. We see this in rich countries and in poor countries,” he explains. Gwen SebastianCoordinator of the Alliance of European Ecosystems.

Campaigning for the July 23 election in Spain is taking place amid this extreme heat wave, and it is forcing politicians to take note of the situation. He also shows them with great cynicism. Minister for that Environmental change, Teresa Ribera, pedaling a bicycle to the European Environment and Energy Ministers’ Summit in Valladolid last Monday. But some videos showed it It’s just an act. He got out of his limousine about 100 meters early. This is not counting the fact that he took a private flight to travel from Madrid. Peter BestartA climate change denier far-right councilor activist, VoxHe has already announced that he wants to run an environmental “Cancellaria” in Mallorca. “Avoid spending based on budgets that lack scientific consensus.” Tuesday, organization Green peace He hung a huge poster in the iconic Puerta de Alcalá in Madrid, where the four main candidates for the heads of government can be seen sweating and where you can read: “Is climate change making you sweat?”

In the campaign for the primary election in Argentina, the environmental issue did not slip. “Climate Crisis, Missing Issue in Argentina’s Presidential Campaign”, is the title of an opinion piece published in the newspaper Country From Madrid, the experts Maria Laura Rojas, Enrique Maurtua And Pilar Bueno. “It is time for all political parties and their candidates to address the issue of climate change from a comprehensive perspective. The climate crisis is intrinsically linked to key Argentine production sectors threatened by climate impacts. In the short and medium term”, they say. But reality indicates that this issue is not on the agenda of the candidates and there is no demand from people to talk about it.

Another good example of politics removed from climate reality occurred this week Wilness, Lithuania, with the NATO summit. It is apparently a forum devoted to what appears to be another topic: the security of Europe. Although experts point out that climate change is closely linked to conservation. “It should be a top item on the security agenda. Climate change is the biggest threat already, on par with Russian expansionism”, revealed Damian Ivanopolis In the last forum “Safety and Environment”. NATO leaders themselves highlighted this in the final document of a meeting focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They identified climate change “A defining challenge that will have a profound impact on Allied security.” It’s just a paragraph. Threats related to cyber security or space occupied the most space.

Not that there hasn’t been progress since 1988 UN Climate Change A search for global agreements to protect humanity began. Since then, they have achieved Kyoto Protocol, 1997, To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Paris Agreement, 2015, adaptation and financing, actions taken each year at the COP, annual climate change conferences organized by the UN. But major setbacks with China and the US, the biggest polluters on Earth, They play a dangerous game of who did the defilement first and how much the other has to pay for the damage.

A turning point occurred at the Copenhagen Summit in 2009, where a historic global agreement was signed to significantly reduce emissions of polluting gases. Journalists who came to cover the event saw the pass Barack Obamato do Nicolas SarkozyTo the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiaboto do Lula da Silvato do Angela Markle All the other Europeans were going to the last meeting of the leaders and we were waiting for hours in the press room for the final decision. We were very excited and took the delay in discussions as a sign that everything was going well. After days of tireless discussions, the delegates and experts waited in the corners with hope. Outside the campus, thousands of people gathered to receive the news of the deal. We waited as if We were in Gotham City and the mayor was about to announce that Batman was done with the Joker for good.

It was a failure. The leaders left without warning through the back door. The spell is over. The next year was a scattered summit in Cancun, Mexico, with no target. Since then, we have been in the same position every twelve months. We continue with reports of disasters coming our way and no concrete action, or at least, nothing effective to keep average global temperatures from continuing to rise. We don’t need to know anything anymore. We have climate change. Each season is listed as worse than the last. We see how people die from related causes, how crops perish, how water washes away our homes, how drought leaves us without water. And it doesn’t matter if it’s in Bangladesh, where it’s been happening regularly for decades, or in Montevideo, where it hasn’t happened before. Scientists continue to obsess while most people and politicians deal with “more pressing” problems. We have an inability to react to gradual disasters.

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