“We’re getting out of our comfort zone”
Heat waves and sunshine records
Climate balance sheet 2022: “We’re getting out of the comfort zone”
An outdoor thermometer shows almost 40 degrees Celsius – the summer of 2022 was one of the hottest since records began.
© Source: Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa/Illustrati
Berlin. Climate experts from the German Weather Service (DWD) have warned of the increasing influence of global warming on the climatological balance for the year 2022. “We’re getting out of the comfort zone,” said Andreas Becker, head of climate monitoring at the DWD, on Tuesday in Berlin.
With strong heat waves, sunshine records and persistent drought, the year was not only in Germany but in the whole of Europe among the warmest since the beginning of the measurements.
Negative consequences of climate change noticeable
The consequences of climate changes are increasingly felt in Germany, said Becker, with a view to forest fires, crop failures and drinking water regulations that several municipalities ordered last summer. He referred to figures from the Robert Koch Institute, according to which the repeated heat waves in the summer of 2022 led to an excess mortality of 4,500 people.
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“It’s worth fighting for every tenth of a degree,” emphasized Becker in view of the Paris climate targets for limiting global warming. According to DWD climate director Tobias Fuchs, achieving them hardly seems possible: “Two degrees are still somehow within reach , but 1.5 degrees is far away.”
RND/dpa
