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Widespread wildfires are caused by the impacts of climate change. |
The Global Environmental Conference held in New Delhi, India, confirms that developing countries are losing at least $40 billion annually to address the consequences of climate change.
According to scientists, climate change is causing increasingly severe droughts and floods, raising sea levels, and melting ice at the poles of the Earth.
The Earth’s atmosphere is warming at an unprecedented rate, with carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reaching the highest levels in the past 650,000 years. The five hottest years on record since 1890 have all occurred in the last decade.
The conference emphasized that if countries focus on investing in cleaner and less carbon-emitting technologies, they will save significantly more compared to the total costs of consuming fossil fuels and the expenses incurred from climate change impacts.
Weather experts have also confirmed that the La Niña phenomenon has re-emerged and will significantly affect global weather in 2006.
This year’s La Niña may last from late spring to the end of summer, causing heavy storms in the Northwest Pacific, Indonesia, Australia, Southeast Africa, the Amazon region in South America, while leading to severe drought in the South Pacific, as well as southern and southwestern states of the United States.
Strong storms and tornadoes, similar to Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina that devastated the United States in 2005, are expected to become more frequent in the Atlantic region.
