Special: The heat of the heat wave is not hot under the drought of the European clamping

Xinhua News Agency, Brussels, August 18th. Specialist: The European Swiping Drought not only feels hot

Xinhua News Agency reporter

The dry riverbed, the soil of the plate, and the burning forest ... This summer, Europe was hit by heat waves and drought, and the temperature in many places reached a record high, and the rainfall was significantly less than in previous years.

The heat waves and droughts not only affect people's daily life and ecological environment, but also bring a lot of challenges to Europe's economy and people's livelihood. This allows more people to recognize the urgency of climate change, but the EU's emission reduction work is now facing the challenge of energy security.

The heat waves are coming

From the end of June to the present, the continuous heat waves have made Europeans suffer, and the temperature in many land in South Europe, Western Europe and Eastern Europe has reached a record high.

The hot and dry summer is the characteristics of the Mediterranean climate in South Europe, but the Western European European climate in temperate marine climate is not as cool as usual this summer. Data show that Portugal, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom have a high temperature of more than 40 degrees Celsius in July, of which Britain exceeded 40 degrees Celsius for the first time. Western European families generally have no air conditioning, and people can only endure heat.

The weather is hot, and the rainfall is significantly less than in previous years, and droughts have appeared in some parts of Europe. Some of the River sections of the Luxal River in France were almost completely dried up, and some canals were forced to close. The Rhine is one of the European Golden Waterways. Data on August 16 showed that it flowed through the water depth of the Cologne in Germany was less than two meters. The longest river water level in Italy hit a record low. This summer, some river cruise tourism activities were suspended this summer. Recent data released by European drought observation websites show that about 63%of the European Union and the United Kingdom issued drought warnings or warnings.

Hot and drought lead to frequent mountain fire. In the southwestern part of France, the mountain fire was rapid, and the fire spread has forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate. As of August 15, a fire of about 6,500 hectares of about 6,500 hectares was destroyed by about 60 kilometers in Aleanter, Spain, and about 1,200 people were evacuated.

According to data from the European Forest Fire Information System, from January to mid -August this year, the European Union has been burned by more than 740,000 hectares of forests.

Meteorologists from the Joint Research Center of the European Commission recently warned that European drought in 2018 was the worst in the past 500 years. This summer has not ended, and it is expected that this year's drought is likely to exceed the level of 2018.

Drought impact on people's livelihood and economy

Hot and drought have caused many impacts on Europe, and agriculture has been hit the most direct impact. In the Bohe region of Italy, severe drought leads to the dry paddy fields. Local farmers estimate that the rice harvest this year may be "chopped".

The German Farmers Association recently warned that under the circumstances of continuous drought, we must be alert to the occurrence of crop harvesting and rising prices. If it does not rain as soon as possible, the harvest may be reduced by 30%or 40%.

The drought also seriously affected the inland shipping in Europe. Many ships need to transport coal to power plants and transport raw materials for industrial enterprises such as steel, chemical industry. However, due to the decline in water levels, the rebar on the Rhine can only run at 25%of capacity. German environmental technician Lilith told Xinhua News Agency that the water level has dropped to the critical point of almost broken airline today, "high temperature steamed water to dry".

Ensuring energy security is the top priority of the European Union, but drought affects hydropower and nuclear power generation. Statistics of Norwegian consulting companies Lustad Energy showed that the amount of hydropower in Europe was 20%reduced compared with the same period last year, and nuclear energy power generation decreased by 12%.

Top climate change alarm clock

Faced with the heat waves and droughts that swept Europe this summer, authoritative institutions, experts and scholars, and public opinion believe that this has once again sounded the alarm bells that have intensified climate change.

Corina Lequrere, a professor of climate change at Dongying Geely University in the United Kingdom, told Xinhua News Agency that abnormal high temperatures reflected the general trend. This is not simply a few hot days, but it is actually a change in the entire weather and climate. There are more and more extreme temperatures caused by climate change. It is imminent to take action to respond to climate change.

The World Meteorological Organization predicts that due to climate change caused by human activities, high -temperature heat waves will become a common phenomenon in the future, and the temperature in Europe will increase faster than other regions.

Global warming is increasing European drought, and the duration of drought will be longer, and the scope of impact will be greater. A study participated in 2018 by the Heim Homoz Environment Research Center in Germany found that if the temperature of the earth increases by 3 degrees Celsius, the proportion of European arid areas will expand from 13%to 26%.

The Swiss "New Zurich" said in a comment article on the 15th that this summer, many Europeans first understood how severe the situation of climate change was. The article calls on countries to take more powerful response measures.

But under the current situation, the EU's ambition to deal with climate change is facing difficulties. Affected by a variety of factors, EU energy supply cannot be guaranteed, and some European countries restarted coal power projects for this. Although Germany and other countries have recently reiterated that they will keep the greenhouse gas reduction targets unchanged, how to find a balance between solving the current energy supply and alleviating the future hot drought, becoming a problem placed in front of the EU.

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