Canada is on fire, with wildfires consuming nearly the entire city of Lytton, where air temperatures reached 50 degrees this week and forced local authorities to order the evacuation of all residents.
In addition to the intense heat wave, there has been a strong wind that has had a devastating effect in terms of the spread of fires across the country and the resources needed to fight them.
To date, there have already been more than 700 fatalities related to the surreal heat in Canada, with more than 130 fires that still have no intention of going out.
This is further proof of the need to coordinate the actions of all countries around the world to combat global warming, fires being just one of the many disastrous consequences we witness every day.
The cause has been pointed to the formation of a “heat dome”: this is generated when the atmosphere traps warm ocean air through the circulation of high pressure, acting as a dome that traps heat near the surface and promotes heat waves.
According to scientists, this is the phenomenon responsible for the tragic rise in temperature. These events are closely linked to global climate change and the now totally erratic behavior of the air flows that regulate our climate.
Unfortunately, this is just one of the many potentially disastrous phenomena that global warming will bring with it. In fact, climate change contributes to the formation of landslides, the melting of glaciers and permafrost and, in winter, intensely cold polar vortices, with very negative consequences for agriculture and vegetation in a vicious circle that seems to have no end.
Events such as these remind us that time is passing quickly and constantly. Every year, we are more and more aware of the need to achieve climate neutrality, but the path is still long and winding.
Our primary goal is to halt global temperature rise, and our immediate challenge is to avoid global warming of 1.5˚C by 2030. While very ambitious as a goal, we have the tools and expertise to achieve it.
Efforts to use as many renewable resources as possible are a very relevant factor in trying to stop this change. However, in addition to focusing on ways to obtain clean energy, we need to put in place small actions that allow us to use it more efficiently. Already today, for example, thanks to complex algorithms and artificial intelligence we are able to reduce the energy consumption of our air conditioners, the main tool of electricity consumption at a time when temperatures are rising. Current tools and innovations in technology will allow us to reduce the time in this fight, but only if they are used and spread globally can make this path successful and effective
