THANK God it’s the rainy season in the Philippines. At least the temperature has cooled down. During the dry season, the highest maximum heat index recorded 49.6° Celsius in Dagupan City, Pangasinan.
It doesn’t take a genius to blame climate change as the culprit for the humidity. At least in our part of the country, we get storm clouds every afternoon.
We are blessed that Filipinos have dark brown skin that are rich in melanin, especially, eumelanin pigments. We are adapted to heat waves.
Which is more than we say for light skin people like the Europeans and North Americans.
Now white skinned people are reeling from the latest heatwave. Another heatwave is set to engulf parts of central and northern Europe this week, bringing expected record-breaking temperatures after a similar weather event in June.
Bordeaux, in southwestern France, reported its highest ever temperature this week as the mercury climbed to 41.2° C. Several other locations across southwestern France also reported all-time high temperatures on Tuesday, according to Meteo France.
Paris’s temperature record of 40.4°C, which was reached in 1947, and could also fall in other cities including Bourges, Lille and Reims.
With the heat comes droughts. France is currently struggling with a drought due to a dry period felt since the last heatwave, which is expected to be further aggravated this week.
AccuWeather sounded the alarm that the continent will experience temperature records that will continue to shatter records this week as new all-time high temperatures were set in both Belgium and the Netherlands.
We cannot shrug off these records. I was there in Paris 20 years. I had time to enjoy the feel and sights after the French International Mountain Forum.
A study published earlier this year by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich said the summer heatwave across northern Europe last year would have been “statistically impossible” without climate change driven by human activity.
Clare Nullis, a World Meteorological Organization spokeswoman, said the heatwaves bore the “hallmark of climate change.” The extreme events were “becoming more frequent, they’re starting earlier, and they’re becoming more intense,” she said. “It’s not a problem that’s going to go away.”
If you think this warning is appropriate only for Europe or North America, wrong. This is going to be worldwide. This extreme weather will haunt us in the coming years.
bqsanc@yahoomail.com