Europe warming twice as fast as rest of the world, new report reveals

[Hydrogen]

All European regions will warm by over 2 degrees Celsius regardless of greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

The European continent is bearing the brunt of climate change, warming at a rate that is twice as fast as the global average, a new report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) found.

The report analyzed 30 years' worth of data from 1991 onwards, revealing a disconcerting trend of speedy warming across Europe that is faster than the warming experienced by any other continent. Average temperatures in Europe were rising at a rate of 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade over the studied period, reaching an overall average of 2.2 degrees C (4 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels. That is way above the 1.5 degree C (2.7 degrees F) limit set by the international climatology community with the goal of minimizing devastating environmental effects of climate change.

The report(opens in new tab), which was compiled in cooperation with the European Earth-observation program Copernicus, stated that Europeans are already feeling the pinch of this warming. According to estimates, the summer of 2022 was the driest in 500 years, with widespread water shortage and wildfires affecting even those nations that are usually accustomed to wetter summers.

Alpine glaciers lost about one hundred feet (30 meters) in ice thickness from 1997 to 2021 as a result of the warming, according to the report. In 2021 alone, weather related disasters, mostly related to floods and storms, caused damages worth $50 billion across all European countries.

"Europe presents a live picture of a warming world and reminds us that even well-prepared societies are not safe from impacts of extreme weather events," Petteri Taalas, the WMO Secretary-General, said in a Copernicus statement accompanying the report. "This year, like 2021, large parts of Europe have been affected by extensive heatwaves and drought, fuelling wildfires. In 2021, exceptional floods caused death and devastation."

Scientists don't know exactly why Europe is warming so fast, Samantha Burgess, deputy director for climate change services at Copernicus told Space.com in a previous interview. The fast-paced warming may have something to do with the proximity of the Arctic, which is by far the world's fastest warming region.

"We know that the Arctic is warming about three times faster than the global average rate," Burgess told Space.com last year. "It's already 3 degrees C [5.4 degrees F] warmer than in the pre-industrial times. It is quite complicated to unpick the scientific reasons behind why the warming is happening so much faster there."

The Arctic warming, which may be spilling over into Europe, may have something to do with changes to Earth's albedo, its ability to reflect sunlight, which is different for ice-covered and water-covered surfaces. While ice acts like a mirror, reflecting the vast majority of the incoming radiation away from the surface, the water pools that form on the thawing ice as a result of the progressing warming absorb heat, causing further warming. Antarctica, likely due to its underlying land mass, seems to be better protected from the worst of this effect, Burgess said.

The new WMO report states that regardless of emission reduction efforts, temperatures in all regions of Europe will continue to rise at a rate higher than the global average.

"The frequency and intensity of hot extremes, including marine heatwaves, have increased in recent decades and are projected to keep increasing regardless of the greenhouse gas emissions scenario," Copernicus said in the statement. "Critical thresholds relevant for ecosystems and humans are projected to be exceeded for global warming of 2 degrees C [3.6 degrees F] and higher."

The good news is that Europe is also leading the way in greenhouse gas emission mitigation efforts. Across the European Union, greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 31% between 1990 and 2020, with a net 55% reduction target for 2030, according to the statement.


https://www.space.com/europe-warming-twice-global-average-rate

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It seems that greater distance from the equator translates to greater warming effects through climate change.

The polar region exhibits 3x times greater warming than normal. Which europe generally being halfway between the poles and equator exhibits 2x warming. The equator would appear to be near the average.

I wish I had done more to track local temperatures over the years. Do people feel summers warming? Or is the deviation in average temperature being exaggerated. Its difficult for me to get a clear picture of things. Perhaps being located near to the equator limits the effects of climate change. While the opposite would also be true for those in closer proximity to the poles.

Many have told me that this is the reason we need bitcoin mining. It funds the future expansion of renewable energy on a global scale. Do we have valid counter arguments to that logic?

[franky1]

too many people throw around the word "carbon"
personally i feel "carbon" as not the reason
since even the 1980's it has been known that oil reserves would be GONE by 2050 anyway (date no coincidence)

however weather and temperature changes happen more so due to RAIN not carbon.
any and all weather reporters show the rain clouds and wind causing temperature changes. they never ever talk about carbon smog clouds or pollution when explaining the temperatures

each year we are seeing less water.
less of a water cycle of: rain, free flow water over land, evaporation. rain. which controls the climate.. yep i said it the water cycle controls climate

this water cycle disturbance IS human caused.

try it yourself get 2 glasses of water(same volume)
pour one out onyou your backyard patio. and then leave the other glass beside it in on your patio.. wait and see which water evaporates more.. the thin puddle or the reservoir(glass of water)
both same water amount but ull finds the spread out free flowing water evaporates faster than the reservoir

think about it
your body. how it controls heat
sweating (releasing water to evaporate heat of the surface)
or farting(carbon/methane)
which makes you cool off more.
.. answer sweating does. not farting

..
human impact of the water cycle:
destroying the RAIN forest (its called rainforest not carbon forest for a reason)
damming up rivers means to create reservoirs.  
that instead of water flowing in streams and rivers and leading to land which can easily then evaporate to create clouds. which the shade the land when cloudy and then cols when it rains.

it instead is pooled into reservoirs. and then piped in plumbing and sewers. thus less water cycle.

less normal average rainful means its warmer. this warmer weather then super heats pools. ponds, reservoirs to super evaporate more water in short timescales which means we have super heat. folowed by super storms

so while governments are using carbon excuses to hand out grants to energy companies to convert to renewables without having to lose profits. knowing energy companies need to transition anyway before 2050(pol reserve depletion)

not alot is actually being done to repair or help the water cycle go back to its normal cycle.

i ma not a climate change denier.. the climate has changed due to human action.. but climate is changed due to water cycle changes.. not carbon
EG the UK. had the london smog if the 17th century.. but guess what. they were having frost fairs where the rivers were frozen over due to cold.. not heat waves
yep when london hat the worse atmosphere on the planet due to carbon. london was suffering from a freeze not heatwave

[Hydrogen]

this water cycle disturbance IS human caused.

Agreed.

Can think of 3 causes for this.

1.  Plants and trees suck water out of the ground and evaporate it from their leaves in a process known as transpiration. Deforestation and human encroachment upon rainforests contribute heavily to decreased plant life, decreased water evaporation and decreased rainfall.

2.  Human consumption of water. Lakes and rivers are drying up on elevated consumption by people. Fewer bodies of water also translate to decreased evaporation. Resulting in decreased rainfall.

3.  Air pollution. Dust, dirt and debris in the atmosphere caused decreased rainfall through a mechanism which I'm not 100% certain on. But it is something I have seen referenced in science articles published on the topic.

[Gyfts]

And this is what people have been saying for ages. Global warming will occur regardless of the carbon emissions that humans produce over the course of centuries as part of the earth's natural climate cycle. It's only been as of the last 10-15 years where activists have convinced politicians that climate change acts as an existential threat to humans which require fundamental shifts in energy policy. None of these folks have even explained the exact reduction in global temperatures carbon emission curtailment would ever produce.

Carbon emissions contribute to global warming, insofar as human pollution is concerned. That being said, the private sectors across the world are already leading the way in reducing emissions, there isn't any need for the average consumer to participate in the climate change delusion by paying elevated prices for energy.

Whether one region heats up faster than another isn't cause for extremist energy policy. Entire globe is heating regardless.