We have all heard about the planet is warming, but so slow it takes decades to notice it. Sea level goes up by 3 mm a year, not an effect which you can spot at the beach. Yes, more storms more floods more droughts..... But was not warned about was fires. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c5y60307r0pt Fires in Spain and France have seen 270,000 people evacuated as of Saturday. Yes fires did happen in France and Spain before, but they used to measure their extent in hectares, these are in square kilometres. These major fires are a new phenomenon, occurring in places in which major fires were rare. In Canada a few days ago over 1,000 forest fires were burning, many out of control, Enough to send massive clouds of smoke across half of the USA. This has only really started to happen more frequently over the last decade. There have also been massive fires in Siberia in recent years, previously nearly unheard of. A large part of the Northern hemisphere temperate zone is covered in forests or grasslands - far more than the Southern hemisphere. When average temperatures rise, evaporation increases, land dries more quickly, fire risk increases. When grasslands/heathlands catch fire, they can recover within a few years usually. Most forests will take decades. The fires are now more intense, so fewer trees survive. And when forests burn, they release a lot of CO2. Which means, of course, more CO2 in the atmosphere, and more warming.... and then more fires. Forests are already under pressure from tree cutting and clearance for agriculture, this could mean that forests will decline even faster. WE were told that one way to offset CO2 emissions was to plant trees, not much point if they catch fire. Soon much of the developed world will look more like North Africa. Savanah, grasslands and desert. A few trees, but few forests. General warming and sea level rise are problems more for the future, but fires are a problem NOW. Their are other problems that happen with climate change, but we do not know for certain when they will happen, could be hundreds of years. But could be sooner.... Failure of AMOC (Atlantic Meridional overturning circulation), decomposition of methane hydrates, collapse of coral reefs. So climate change is more to worry about than just a little warming and a slowly rising sea level.
