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Published on Friday, July 21, 2006 by the Inter Press Service

Global Warming, Not Just Heat Wave
by Julio Godoy

PARIS – The heat wave sweeping Europe is a direct consequence of the
warming of the earth’s atmosphere, experts say. “We are observing and
suffering the first effects of global warming,” Hervé Le Treut,
meteorologist at the French Centre for Scientific Research told IPS.

“The emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, are
leading to higher temperatures all over the world, but these are observed
in an irregular manner across the continents,” he said. “The global
weather is clearly disturbed.”

Record temperatures of well over 35 degrees Celsius were recorded
all
over Europe this week. On Jul. 20 Paris and Berlin registered 39 degrees.
In Belgium, Jul. 19 was the hottest day ever in July, with 37 degrees.

The July maximum temperature record was also broken in Britain. The
mercury reached 36.5 Celsius at the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens
at Wisley in Surrey. The previous record for July, 36 degrees, was set in
Epsom in 1911.

“Europa achicharrada”, the weekly Spanish newspaper El Semanal
declared, meaning “Europe burned to a crisp”.

The heat wave has led to several deaths across Europe.

French minister of health Xavier Bertrand said Jul. 19 that at least
nine people had died this summer, victims of the heat. “I ask everybody to
be conscious of the health risks (of elderly people), because during the
next days temperatures will remain so high that human organisms will not
be able to recover rapidly,” Bertrand said at a press conference in Paris.

In Spain, at least two heat wave deaths have been reported. Both
victims were bricklayers, who died at work. In Germany and the
Netherlands, four people died of cardio-vascular complications provoked by
the heat.

But this year’s death toll remains low compared to some 35,000
people
who died across Europe in the heat wave of 2003. That year 15,000 people,
mostly the elderly, died in France.

“The heat wave of 2003 reached its climax during August,” Le Treut
said. “This year temperatures have been over the average already during
the spring. The hottest days are still ahead of us.”

Another reason for the relatively low number of deaths this year is
the warning system introduced by health authorities, especially in France.
“After the drama of 2003 we prepared a vigilance plan which has been
functioning since Jun. 1,” Gilles Bruecker, director of the French
Institute of Health Surveillance told IPS. “We wanted to anticipate the
risks, and prevent any deaths.”

The plan provides for particular attention to the elderly and
children. A ban on intensive sports activity during the hottest parts of
the day is in force all over the country. Water use is being rationed,
with bans on filling private swimming pools, and controls on watering
gardens. Britain has banned use of hosepipes.

More and hotter such summers lie ahead. Temperatures registered in
Europe since 1900 show that there is now a larger number of hotter days
every year. “The number of days with temperatures higher than 25 degrees
is growing regularly,” says Serge Planton, director of the Centre for
Weather Research at Toulouse in France.

“On average, the temperature in Europe has grown about one degree
since 1900, resulting in a climatic shift,” Planton told IPS. “The
greenhouse effect, provoked by the emissions of gases such as carbon
dioxide, will lead to a warming of between 2.5 and 5 degrees in Europe
towards the year 2100.”

Most European experts see a similar scenario ahead. “A superficial
review of temperature statistics in Europe shows that weather is getting
warmer by the year,” Franz-Josef Loepmeier, meteorologist at the German
Weather Service told IPS. “We will not see palm trees grow in Germany, but
summers will be hotter in the years to come, unless humankind as a whole
does something consistent against global warming.”

Friedrich-Wilhelm Gerstengarbe, professor at the German Institute
for
Weather Research based in Potsdam near Berlin, agrees.. “The weather
changes we are observing are mostly caused by human activities, especially
the emission of greenhouse gases,” he told IPS.

Gerstengarbe said that over the last century temperatures in Germany
rose 0.8 degrees. “Over the next 75 years, we expect a warming of between
1.8 to 3..6 degrees for our region.”

The heat is also taking its toll on agriculture, and affecting the
generation of electricity, especially in nuclear power plants.

The lack of fresh water for the nuclear plants’ cooling systems has
led German private electricity suppliers to slow down their generators.

In France, the state-owned Electricité de France (EdF) was allowed
to
continue to drain hot water from the cooling system into rivers, although
the water temperatures exceeded the limits imposed by environmental
authorities. But output has had to be lowered.

EdF has been importing electricity to compensate the nuclear power
plants’ lower performance. Eighty percent of electricity generated in
France is produced by nuclear power plants.

In Italy, hydroelectric plants have had to slow down due to a
shortage
of water in rivers.

European agriculture has also been hit by the heat wave and the
drought.

In Germany, president of the association of farmers Gerd Sonnleitner
told the press that this year’s harvest on cereals would be 10 to 15
percent lower than in 2004, for which figures are available. “We had
excellent expectations, but the heat and the drought have destroyed them.”

In France farmers say the heat has damaged harvests. Livestock
breeders said they have been forced to exhaust their forage reserves.

“This is the fourth successive drought we are suffering,” Jean-Luc
Poulain, commissioner for risks management at the French Association of
Farmers told IPS. “We have not been able to reconstitute our stocks. And
the situation gets worse by the day.”

Copyright © 2006 IPS-Inter Press Service