With each passing year, the so-called heat waves are more frequent. In Buenos Aires alone, in recent days, some of the highest temperatures of all time have been recorded in the Argentine capital. As a result, what was seen was chaos, blackouts and traffic problems.
But what is this phenomenon due to? Is there a link between these heat waves and global warming? And with the greenhouse effect?
The answer is yes!
According to experts, heat waves are extreme weather phenomena, with very high temperatures in certain places on the planet. Before the heat wave that hits southern Brazil and Argentina, the last time they gained prominence in the press was in 2021, when temperatures of almost 50°C were recorded in Canada.
According to professor at the Physics Institute of the University of São Paulo (IF-USP), Paulo Artaxo, global warming is making heat waves more frequent and much stronger, which leads to major socioeconomic impacts. “What we see is one of the effects predicted by climate models associated with the global rise in temperature.
Despite looking like simply extreme heat, this phenomenon is extremely harmful to human health. Between 1998 and 2017, around 165,000 people died worldwide from heat waves.
But is it possible to contain global warming?
Most people must have already wondered what they can do to collaborate with the planet and reduce the harmful effects of the greenhouse effect. But most of the time, they end up giving up, believing that given the size of the population, any action taken will have no effect.
And therein lies the error. If each person rethinks their consumption habits, waste production, they will be contributing to the planet.
The decrease in waste production also reduces pollution and the emission of methane gas, very common in landfill areas.
If you have been impacted in any way by heat waves or weather phenomena related to global warming, know that we are all to blame for this.
However, it is also possible to do our part to lessen this impact.
Change starts with each of us.
The good news is: we can still save the planet and leave it a better place than the one we received. It's not easy, but it's posssible. Although it sounds like a cliché to say that it's up to us, this is the purest truth.
So let's roll up our sleeves before the damage is irreversible.