ISBA

5 @the_isba Autumn 2021 | Environmental sustainability This summer we saw the effects of the climate crisis become glaringly obvious. Western US and Canada experienced weeks of an extreme “heat dome” in June and July 2021, breaking temperature records – 47.9C recorded in Lytton, Canada www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/us-canada-heatwave- weekend-weather-b1887564.html Residents went to large cooling centres as the dangerous heat continued www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57626173 It’s warm enough to be raining on the Greenland ice sheet which needs to remain as ice for our coastal cities to remain https://twitter.com/climate_ice/status/ 1408087602356436997 “Siberia’s wildfires are b igger than all the world’s o ther blazes combined” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/11/siberia- fires-russia-climate/ Floods in China www.scmp.com/video/ china/3146859/heavy-rain-china- forces-thousands-evacuate-deluge- causes-flooding-and Since the highest temperature was recorded in Britain in July 2019 – 38.7ºC at the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge – the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the UK’s Met Office have said that there is now a 40 percent chance of the average annual global temperature reaching 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels in at least one of the next five years. The WMO general secretary said: “increasing temperatures mean more melting ice, higher sea levels, more heatwaves and other extreme weather and greater impacts on food security, health, the environment and sustainable development… It underlines the need for climate adaptation.” A summer like no other Wildfires raged across Europe www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/ world-58257998 Constant struggle for food as Malawi’s Lake Chilwa shrinks e New York Times Snails burned in their shells from the heat. Lemons and oranges scorched by the sun nearly melted on the trees. Temperatures in one Sicilian town hit 51 Celcius, or nearly 124 Farenheit, possibly the highest ever recorded in Europe.