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From the Valley of Death to the banks of the Euphrates, passing through the Indian subcontinent, global warming makes the daily existence of millions of people unbearable …
London (AFP)
“Death Valley is the hottest place on Earth. The average summer temperature is even higher in the last 20 years,” says Abby Wines, communications officer for Death Valley National Park in California.
In this scrub-strewn desert, the thermometer has reached 54.4 ° C in two consecutive years, a temperature never recorded by modern instruments.
And the month of July 2021 was the hottest ever on the planet, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
“This unbearable heat affects us a lot and we, the poor, are the hardest hit,” laments Kuldeep Kaur, a resident of Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, northwestern India.
At the other end of the planet, under the “heat dome” that hit Canada this summer, Rosa was desperate in Vancouver. “It’s just unbearable. We can’t go out in this heat,” he said.
“Thousands of dead”
Without reducing greenhouse gas emissions, this type of phenomenon “will become even more common,” says Zeke Hausfather, a climatologist at the Breakthrough Institute.
The increase in temperatures linked to the “greenhouse effect” leads in turn to an increase in the frequency and intensity of droughts, fires, storms and floods. And also a multiplication of devastating heat waves for agriculture and deadly for man.
“A flood is a few deaths, maybe dozens. Each great wave of extreme heat leads to thousands of deaths. And we know that these heat waves multiply”, sums up Robert Vautard, climatologist and director of the Pierre-Simon Laplace institute.
If global warming reaches the threshold of +2 ° C, a quarter of the world’s population will experience heat waves at least once every five years, according to a draft UN report obtained by AFP before the great international climate conference (COP26) which begins in Glasgow (Scotland) on October 31st.
Impact on cities
The Bedouins have always lived with this suffocating heat.
“It must be about 43 degrees and it is only 08:30 to 09:00. At 14:00, the temperature can reach 48, 49 degrees, sometimes even 50. But it is normal for us, we are used to it, we are not surprised. nor restless “, confides Nayef al Shamari, 51 years old.
Nayef and her father Saad live and work in the Nefud Desert in Saudi Arabia, where they have raised camels for generations.
Despite the calm of Nayef al Shamari, the way of life of these Bedouins may be at risk.
“Even animals in the region that tolerate heat, such as some camels or goats, are going to be affected, as well as agriculture: this extreme heat is going to have an impact on food production,” says George Zittis, researcher at Cyprus. Institute.
The Mesopotamian marshes in Iraq, between the Tigris and the Euphrates, where the legend places the Garden of Eden, are also in danger.
“High temperatures, above 50 degrees, have consequences for fish, animals, inhabitants and tourism,” says the owner of a boat, Razak Jabar, moving slowly in the middle of a watercourse. With resignation, he explains that he must leave.
These forced displacements from rural areas create new challenges.
“In this part of the world (the Middle East and North Africa), we predict that by the end of the century, 90% of the population will live in cities,” where temperatures already tend to be higher, predicts George Zittis.
Faced with the urgency, calls to act multiply.
“Without an immediate, rapid and large-scale reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, we will not be able to limit global warming to 1.5 ° C and the consequences will be catastrophic,” UN Secretary General António Guterres warned in September. .
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