The international summit of non-state actors on desertification, Désertif’Actions 2017, took place in Strasbourg, France, from 26th to 28th June, 2017. It was co-organized by Climate Chance, CARI and the UN Convention on Desertification (UNCCD), and supported by the city of Strasbourg.
The sinking of water masses forms the “motor” of the thermohaline circulation. Warm saline water masses flow from the equatorial regions to the north, where they cool down, lose volume and sink to the bottom. Along the ocean floor those water masses flow back to the south. However, these water masses must come up at some point to form a circulation and to follow the simple law of physics of mass continuity. The process of these re-emerging water masses is called upwelling.
When you heat the water for your cup of tea, you take of the lid and you see there are lots of tiny drops under the lid. With the climate change, the same procedure is happening with the sea of our planet and that’s how climate change can change precipitation patterns by increasing sea surface temperatures that creates evaporation and increases the rainfall. And we are not just talking about small scattered showers, but tremendous rainfalls and tropical storms.
The thermohaline circulation, thermo referring to heat and haline referring to salt, has an important role for the state of the global climate. The ocean currents, driven by wind systems and density differences in the oceans, transport heat from tropical latitudes near the equator to higher latitudes close to the poles, which stabilises the uneven distribution of solar energy around the globe. This large-scale circulation, consisting of numerous ocean currents, connects all the ocean basins to each other and has therefore a large impact on the global climate system as a whole. In the Northern hemisphere, the Gulf Stream system makes up a large part of the thermohaline circulation, and is one of the most studied ocean current systems in the world because of its big impact on local weather and climate.1
Have you ever wondered how much is actually true about Emmerich’s “The day after tomorrow”-scenario? Can an ice age actually happen with rising temperatures? That sounds pretty paradoxical, right? The most commonly used scenarios in terms of climate change show higher sea level because of increasing temperature and with that, melting glaciers and drowning islands. But there are some other scenarios that resemble Emmerich’s “The Day After Tomorrow” world, admittedly, not quite as dramatic and spectacular as a deep frozen world but there are some similarities.
From birthdays to historical milestones, international observances to the occasional solar eclipse, one can count on social media and globally integrated information feeds for the quipping reminder and comprehensive commemorative signposts. Earth Overshoot Day, which lands on the 2nd of August this year, might come to pass with a more muted buzz than that which might follow a total solar eclipse, but its collective significance is no less planetary and the date calls for its very own repertoire of action.
The consequences of climate change are not felt equally across the world. The brunt of its impacts fall on the poor and vulnerable: indigenous peoples, mothers in rural areas, laborers working outside, and slum dwellers. With increasing extreme weather tendencies such as floods and desertification, sea level rising, and other environmental hazards, people are being forced to migrate. This is leading to exponential increases in the amount of climate migrants, people forced to move due to climate change. In a 2010 Gallup World Poll, 12 percent of respondents said environmental problems would require them to move within the next five years.
