World reels from wildfires, floods as US, China discuss climate crisis
Global temperatures headed towards alarming highs and extreme weather proliferated as the world’s two biggest polluters, China and the United States, sought on Monday to reignite climate talks.
With scientists saying the target of keeping global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels is moving beyond reach, evidence of the crisis was everywhere, Reuters reported.
A remote town in China’s arid northwest, Sanbao, registered a national record of 52.2 Celsius (126 Fahrenheit).
Wildfires in Europe raged ahead of a second heat wave in two weeks that was set to send temperatures as high as 48C. In the US, a quarter of the population fell under extreme heat advisories, partly due to a heat dome that has settled over western states.
“In many parts of the world, today is predicted to be the hottest day on record,” tweeted Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation.
“The #ClimateCrisis is not a warning. It’s happening. I urge world leaders to ACT now.” In a resumption of diplomacy on global warming between the two superpowers, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry met Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua in Beijing, urging joint action to cut methane emissions and coal-fired power.
“In the next three days we hope we can begin taking some big steps that will send a signal to the world about the serious purpose of China and the US to address a common risk, threat, challenge to all of humanity created by humans themselves,” Kerry said, noting the proliferation of storms and fires.
“It is toxic for both Chinese and for Americans and for people in every country on the planet.”
Prolonged high temperatures in China are threatening power grids and crops and raising concerns about a repeat of last year’s drought, the most severe in 60 years.
Typhoon Talim was gaining strength and due to make land at night along China’s southern coast, forcing the cancellation of flights and trains in the regions of Guangdong and Hainan.
In South Korea, torrential rains left 40 people dead as river levees collapsed causing flash floods.
An anticyclone nicknamed Charon – who in Greek mythology was the ferryman of the dead – could cause Europe to break its highest recorded temperature of 48.8C, possibly on the Italian island of Sardinia.
Tourists in the Italian capital cooled themselves under giant fans set up outside the Colosseum and took turns to drink from a fountain near the Spanish Steps.
In Spain, temperatures could rise to as high as 44C in some regions. However, a forest fire on the island of La Palma in the Canaries that forced the evacuation of 4,000 people was being brought under control as temperatures fell, local official Sergio Rodriguez said in an interview on TVE.
The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service says 2022 and 2021 were the continent’s hottest summers on record.
As many as 61,000 people may have died in Europe during heatwaves last summer, with a repetition feared this season.