Generally Canada is considered one of the coldest country. The climate there, is mostly cold or mild but in recent times the conditions have changed drastically.
What is the reason behind this? What can be the solutions? Lets discuss in this blog.
At present almost all cities in Canada have recorded temperatures near 49.6 C (121.28 F) . Canada`s temperature has exceeded record temperatures three times in the past week. Shocking images have been observed where Power cables have been melted, roads have ben damaged and people have shifted to public places where AC`s are present, this moving to public places occured because almost every house in these regions have no air condition at their home due to mild climate.
Due to extreme heat waves Canada Battles More Than 180 Wildfires With Hundreds Dead In Heat Wave from the report of npr. About 70% of the active fires were likely caused by lightning strikes, according to the British Columbia Wildfire Service’s dashboard. Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist with the company Vaisala, says a lightning detection network uncovered more than 700,000 lightning strikes in the area between June 30 and July 1.
But what is the reason behind this heat wave? According to experts , “Climate impacts are driving these extreme fire seasons,” said Carly Phillips with the pacific institute for Climate Solutions. (source ~ CBC ). However technically this is caused by Heat Dome.
What is Heat Dome? From the image it is seen that the hot air on the level of ground rises upwards and the high pressure present in the atmosphere pushes this hot air down. Due to this downward movement of hot air it becomes more denser and heat is produced. Extreme weather gets a boost from Climate change. Scientists are detecting a stronger link between the planets warming and its changing weather patterns.
Though it can be hard to pinpoint whether climate change intensified a particular weather event, the trajectory is clear – hotter heat waves, drier droughts, bigger storm surges and greater snowfall. But comparing it with global warming might not be always true, because climate change causes extreme heat waves says environmental experts.
To reduce the Climate change the Famous Paris Agreement was made to which almost 200 countries have signed. Entered into force less than a year later, the deal aims to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and to limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2 degree Celsius while pursuing means to limit the increase even further to 1.5 degrees.
Now what happens if the temperature reaches 49 degree? Research says that temperature above 35 degree plus 100 % humidity under some condition is deadly to living organisms. Here the term wet bulb temperature is used which means, the temperature indicated by a moistened thermometer bulb exposed to the air flow. Wet Bulb temperature can be measured by using a thermometer with the bulb wrapped in wet muslin. At 100% relative humidity, the wet-bulb temperature is equal to the air temperature; at lower humidity the wet-bulb temperature is lower than dry-bulb temperature because of evaporative cooling.
At theoretical wet-bulb temperatures, evaporation and cooling can no longer take place because the atmosphere is fully saturated with water. And when the wet-bulb temperature reaches 35 degree Celsius, it crosses a threshold at which humans can no longer lose internal body heat and cool themselves.
Now what can be the solutions for this? One should understand that in present times, Individual actions can`t solve Climate Change, says aspeninstitute. As per the studies it is said that the implementation of carbon tax can become a solution for this. Carbon tax means, a tax on fossil fuels, especially used by motor vehicles, intended to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide. As written in tax foundation that the main purpose of Carbon Tax is to price carbon emissions in order to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and mitigate the adverse effects of climate change.
This won`t affect the common man as will be paid by the companies and industries involved in it.
