European people's bills break their tables, the wealthy North Pole "mining" | Global high -temperature "baking" inspection

"China Economic Weekly" reporter Hou Yan | Beijing report

Is it the hottest year in history in 2022?

According to the latest report released by the World Meteorological Organization on August 9, in July 2022, it has become one of the hottest three July since the global meteorological record.

Since entering the summer, "heat" has become the keyword of global news headlines.

The United States, China, South Korea, Japan, India, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and other countries all have extreme high temperatures above 40 ° C. These extreme weather is not just data. Behind each number is living on the earth. Countless ordinary people have experienced serious influence of extreme weather events.

Why is it so hot this summer? When extreme high temperature becomes the norm in summer, how should the city cool down? How should humans deal with it?

The story behind the three bills

Gas and electricity costs over 1,000 euros per month? Intersection

This sound that sounds crazy has become a reality in Europe.

This summer, LISA, who lives in Cambridge, UK, finally decided to buy an air conditioner.

"My spending is far more than 1,000 euros. I spent more than 2,000 pounds in order to cool down. In the summer of Britain, it is generally more than 20 degrees Celsius. In an interview with a reporter from "China Economic Weekly", she said, "From the past years, the United Kingdom is usually hot in July to August. Generally, British people will go to the European continent at that time But this year, not only the United Kingdom, but the entire Europe has begun to enter the hot state in June. In addition, the economy is not dazzling.

Lisa gave reporters to their own bills: buying and installing air conditioners, and spent 2,100 pounds (about 171,000 yuan) before tax. Among them, the air conditioner itself spent £ 1,000, and the installation process cost 1 £ 1,100.

After the air conditioner renewed, the summer of Lisa's family was really cool. But another problem followed, and the electricity bill bills will soar.

"No way, if you drive to travel, it is a lot of expenses." She said helplessly.

According to the data, the British oil price has reached 191.2 pence on June 29, close to 2 pounds, which has soared the cost of life of ordinary people again.

"A typical 55 -liter car's refueling fee rose from £ 72 a year ago to £ 105. We are now in order to control the cost of living, reduce going out, and reduce entertainment. ) Free food, but the food there is starting to decrease significantly, "Lisa said.

According to the article "Why British Energy Bills soared to a record high" published by the British Carbon BRIEF website, British household electricity and exhaust costs will reach the highest level in half a century.

In Bruce in Belgium, Kris, which is open to the van, faces the problem of how to save power.

"1,000 euros? Do you know how much my monthly bill is? 5500 euros!" Kris told the reporter of "China Economic Weekly".

He calculated a account for reporters: his gas fee has risen from 900 euros to 4,200 euros per month in the past 12 months, and electricity bills have risen from 2,000 euros per month to 5,500 euros this year.

"I have to be like a mathematician every day. I can't bake bread anymore. I must save power and finish all the food at the same time, because I can't let the oven rotate multiple times!" Kris complained.

In Germany, Jan DierickX also spent 1,000 euros in July this year to replace more power -saving LED lighting, and also installed 10 solar panels. The entire roof will be covered. "I also accumulated wood to warm up in winter, so I hope my bill will drop a little." Jan DierickX told the reporter of "China Economic Weekly".

In a recent report, Deutsche Bank stated that due to the tight natural gas supply, German families may switch to wood this winter as the source of heating.

Many people go to the sea to cool down

British shopping center holding umbrella to cool down

On July 19, the temperature in the United Kingdom was as high as 43 ° C on the same day, and the shop was closed.

The rich are busy looking for the North Pole Gold Business Opportunities

Just as ordinary people in Europe are thinking about how to save energy expenses, some super rich people are busy digging new business opportunities in the Arctic.

On the other side of the hot and high temperature, the energy and resources below the ice cover may be appropriate to mining.

According to the United States CNN (CNN), billionaires including Amazon founder Besos, financial media giants Bloomberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, etc., all saw Greenland Island that may be hidden With the support of these billionaires, the US technology company Kobold Metals is looking for rare metals and minerals that can be used to make electric vehicle batteries, such as nickel and cobalt.

Kuro Metals said that they are probably the world's first or second -largest nickel and cobalt mines, and may be able to provide motivation for 100 million electric vehicles.

At present, the ice cover covering Greenland, the largest island in the world is accelerating. News shows that scientists in the Arctic region even played volleyball wearing short -sleeved shorts. With the warming of the climate, the ice sheet decreases and the glaciers are accelerated. In recent years, with the rich natural resources owned by the Arctic and the potential of the maritime trade channel, it has been continuously concerned and tapped. Economic activities on the competition for channels and resources are also becoming unprecedentedly active.

Not only the Glacier of the Arctic is accelerated.

In 2016, more and more ice and snow melted over the North Pole. Photography: "China Economic Weekly" reporter Hou Yan

On August 22, researchers from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland issued a report. They found that Switzerland's glaciers today have been contrasting in sharp contrast with the recent century. From 1931 to 2016, the volume of Swiss glaciers was reduced by half. In the last 6 years from 2016 to 2021, glacier melting speeds have further accelerated, and the volume has decreased by 12%.

Glacier Scholars Christov Mell said that there are several very large glaciers in the Alps for a long time, but most of the Glacier of the Alps will disappear in the next 50 years. Many German glaciers, including the Schinifona Glacier, may disappear within 15 years.

Experts warn the era of climate crisis that has arrived

"High temperature is already the norm in the world. For a long time in the future, the common topic that humans will face are the climate crisis." The reporter said.

On May 18, 2022, the World Meteorological Organization released the World Climate Report of 2021, announcing that the average temperature of the world was 1.11 ° C higher than before the industrial revolution, and the world is in a gradually warming world.

Wei Ke said that there are many causes of climate abnormalities in the history of the earth. For example, the movement of the Earth plate, and the outbreak of volcanoes, will bring global climate abnormalities. Now global climate change is caused by a large amount of greenhouse gases of human activities.

"The international scientific community's research on global warming has been at least more than 40 years. From the first evaluation report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Climate Change Committee (IPCC) in 1990, it has been almost 30 years old. The world's extreme high -temperature heat waves are also becoming more and more frequent, which is basically a consensus of global climate scholars. There is no objection from scientific and observation. " Essence

However, he pointed out that the most unwilling problem is that the speed of global warming is accelerating, and it has reached the critical point that can be controlled. A number of research on Western scientists has shown that climate change has a "amazing speed" of the superchargedness of climate change on extreme weather. According to the experience so far, global temperatures are currently rising at least 2.5 ° C orbit, which will bring greater crisis and destruction.

"Investigating the evolution of global carbon dioxide content in the past 800,000 years, we will find that it changes between two values. The minimum is not less than 170ppm (Parts Per Million, a million -point concentration). Human activities have quickly raised this value to today's 420ppm. The current speed should be more than 100 times the natural process, or even thousands of times, "Wei Ke said.

According to the latest report of IPCC, human activities have no doubt about the global climate crisis; the opportunity window for the world to realize 1.5 ° C or 2 ° C in the world; and the affected climate factor They are all intensified.

"So we saw that the climate disaster had swept the world in 2022, and various extreme weather events have become headlines of news from various countries around the world. Earlier, from the end of 2019 to early 2020, the forest fire that occurred in Australia could be Recognizing, the wildfire, which stretches for months, has caused nearly 3 billion animals to die or displaces. These are the emergence of extreme climate. "Wei Ke told the reporter of" China Economic Weekly ".

"I personally think that we are not only in 2022, but also in the third year of the climate crisis." Wei Ke said.

In 2000, the Nobel Prize winner Paul Cruzen proposed that the earth is now in a new era- "Human World" geological concept, in order to distinguish between Jurassic and White Cycles, highlighting human activities to the earth. Impact. Although there are still differences in the scientific community in the starting point of this period, as more and more scientists recognize, Wei Ke believes that it will soon become a standard scientific concept.

"We are facing an unknown. We are standing on the top of a mountain and knowing that there must be a cliff in front, but I don't know where the cliff is, and there is a fog around. Scientists estimate that the cliff in front is about 1.5 ° C. This is criticality. The concept of the point cannot be returned if the temperature continues to increase to a certain degree. "Wei Ke said.

So, what can we do in the face of global warming trends?

"With the improvement of living standards, our demand for energy will definitely be more and more. If we still insist on using traditional energy, we will make the temperature higher and higher. Then we need more electricity to deal with high temperatures.It will burn more traditional energy. This will be caught in a dead cycle. The only solution is that if we can quickly use new energy and let economic life switch to the field of new energy, then we can break the dead cycle. "Wei Ke said.Responsible | Yao Kun

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