Abnormal Weather Raises Potential Threats to Environment and Health

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KUWAIT CITY, Jan 11: Winter is no longer as cold as in previous years due to the rising global temperatures, which could lead to environmental and health problems, reports Al-Qabas daily. A recent report published by New York Times quoted scientists as saying that the Earth is “burning” due to the unusually high temperatures throughout the world for a long time. It affirmed that the world is getting hotter and 2023 was the warmest in 150 years. The report confirmed that global temperatures have exceeded record numbers since the middle of 2023 and did not stop until the end of the year. It added that June used to be the warmest month on the planet, then July became the warmest and so on until December. It indicated that temperatures are rising month after month.

According to the European Union climate monitor, the temperature around the world over the past year was 1.48 degrees Celsius or 2.66 Fahrenheit warmer than in the second half of the 19th century, and those numbers are warmer by a large margin than in 2016 and the previous year was hottest. The report stated: It is not surprising for climate scientists that unlimited emissions of greenhouse gases will lead to global warming, rising to unprecedented levels.

Researchers are trying to understand if the year 2023 portends many more years in which this will not happen. In a press statement, Director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service Carlo Buontempo explained that “the extreme events we have observed over the past few months provide dramatic testimony to how far we are now from the climate in which our civilization evolved.”

Locally, experts confirmed to the daily that Kuwait is not isolated from this report. They stressed the need for the concerned State authorities to take urgent measures to keep pace with climate change, protect the environment and implement environmental projects that will mitigate the severity of the escalating temperature increase. They cited the increasing levels of pollution as one of the causes of high temperatures, pointing out that greening is an urgent need to reduce the severity of high temperatures and dust storms. They added the problem of rising temperatures and the resulting environmental and health repercussions are not individual, and that no country can confront climate change in isolation from international cooperation, especially with neighboring countries.

They stated that Kuwait needs advanced urban planning, which takes into account climate change and the sharp rise in temperatures. They mentioned several reasons behind the increase in the emission of greenhouse gases in Kuwait, including the steady increase in the number of vehicles that drive in a limited urban area and cause exhaust emissions, in addition to the use of air conditioning devices to a much greater extent than global rates.

Meteorologist Issa Ramadan underscored the need to take measures to confront the phenomenon of global warming, indicating that many research and scientific institutions have started to prove that temperatures are significantly higher than they were in past eras. “Many countries recorded an unprecedented rise in temperatures during the past year, and climate change has become a reality and a fact that cannot be denied.

Therefore, we must lay down plan, strategies and a road map to solve the problem of current and expected high temperatures, which will increase in the coming years. One of the important solutions in Kuwait is to start reducing gas emissions from car exhausts and move towards the use of electric cars, as well as the implementation of transportation projects like mass transportation in the form of electric trains and buses, uses clean fuel or electricity to mitigate these emissions,” he added. Former Director General of the Environment Public Authority (EPA) and Kuwait University Professor Dr Salah Al- Mudhahi warned the study indicating rising temperatures is not the first and will not be the last.

He said the 2015 Paris Agreement that countries signed, aims to commit to working to ensure that the rise in temperatures by the year 2050 does not exceed more than 1.5 to two degrees, asserting this number is also high. He explained that rising temperatures will lead to the disappearance of some islands or even island countries, as it raises ocean levels, especially the open oceans, and rising temperatures also melt ice and this phenomenon has already started. As for Kuwait, Al-Mudhahi believes this would not have a significant impact on the country, considering its location within the Gulf and the presence of a strait.

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