What Are Climate Change “Hot Spots”?

“UNHCR, The Environment & Climate Change. The majority of the 59.5M people of concern to UNHCR are situated in climate change hot spots around the world, facing the risk of secondary or repeated displacement due to natural hazards and the effects of climate change.”

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When we now discuss and research anthropogenic (caused by human activity) climate change, climate change skeptics refer to the fact that the Earth´s climate has always had variations and periods of e.g. ice age, which is of course true. However, anthropogenic climate change is what we now experience as drastic, possibly even unexpected and sudden changes in the Earth´s climate, whereby e.g. the warming of the Arctic region is so influential that it can actually halt the Gulf Stream, which brings warmer weather to Northern Europe. No one knows for sure where this is leading: on one hand, currently, the climate has become somewhat milder in Northern Europe. When we used to have snow already in October, or November, now it is mainly raining until the snow arrives as late as in January.

In the past years, rainfall has increased at least here in Finland, and the weather patterns seem to be more unpredictable, or should I say, rain throughout the year. This year we had snowfall in May in Southern Finland, which is extremely rare. When Midsummer (in June) used to be the start of the short Summer here in Finland, we have now often experienced temperatures similar to Christmas, meaning that Midsummer (June) and Christmas (December) have become equally warm, or, cold, depending upon how you see it. I have a lot of relatives living in Northern Finland, Lapland. This year there is no red color in the Autumn coloring due to the weather being too warm, another example of how changing weather patterns rapidly influence the environment.

So, what are climate change hot spots? According to a number of sources, for example the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate change hot spots are key regions around the world that are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The vulnerability includes several geographical factors, such as proximity to the ocean (sea level rise), and aridity. Nevertheless, anthropogenic climate change affects everything that is living on this planet.

See a map of the world´s climate change hot spots, as presented by the Global Policy Journal: Global Policy Journal – Climate Change ‘Hotspots’: Why they Matter and Why we Should Invest in them

Learn more about the topic by watching UN University´s “Enhancing Resilience to Climate and Ecosystem Changes: The Ghana Model

 

 

Connect with me on Twitter @annemariayritys. For climate/environment-related posts only @GCCThinkActTank. Subscribe to Leading With Passion to receive my latest posts.

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