Middle East countries face extreme heat risk, study finds
Al JazeeraNov 28, 2022
The Facts
EU’s climate monitoring unit, the Copernicus Climate Change Service, released new data Thursday showing that global average temperatures for the beginning of June were the highest in the dataset on record, breaking previous records by a “substantial margin," the organization said.
According to the report, early June temperatures in Europe were 1-2°C above average in many regions. The highest temperatures occurred in regions of Scandinavia and western Russia, where temperatures soared to up to 10°C above normal.
The Spin
Narrative A
Climate change is already driving up global average temperatures. In the next five years, one year will almost certainly be the hottest on record, and there's a two-thirds chance that a single year will cross the crucial 1.5°C global warming threshold. The Copernicus Climate Change Service report warns that if humanity fails to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero, increasingly worse heat records will tumble beyond this decade.
Narrative B
Many Europeans are concerned about the climate crisis and would willingly take personal steps and back government policies to help combat it. But support for climate change actions diminishes the bigger effect these measures would have on people's lifestyles. This shows individual-level support, but also a good deal of "climate action for thee but not for me."
Narrative C
Climate change is a global problem that requires a global solution. Environmentalists have advocated for individual actions for decades and are not making the needed impact. For consumers in the industrialized world to virtue signal with their actions is irrelevant at best. The most important thing you can do as an individual is vote for leaders who will champion climate policies that work for everyone. Robust climate action needs macro solutions.