The Low Carbon Partnership
Solar Power
Extreme temperatures
The temperature of our planet is higher now than it has been for at least 1000 years. It has increased by 0.8°C over the past 100 years. But scientists predict that the greenhouse gases that we have already released into to the Earth’s atmosphere mean that the temperature will continue to rise. What they are not sure about is how much it will rise. That depends on all sorts of possible reactions – in the oceans, the ice and the land that are extremely difficult to predict.
Recent models suggest that the average temperature in the UK is likely to rise by between 2.5 and 3°C by the end of this century. While it is easy to long for warmer and sunnier weather in the UK, scientists predict both warmer winters and hotter summers. We can expect more heatwaves that last for longer. These can be devastating. The summer of 2003 produced a heatwave in much of Europe that resulted in forest fires, failure of farm crops and some, particularly older people dying. On the other hand, we are likely to have less extreme cold conditions in winter – which means less snow - but fewer people dying from cold.
While people should be able to adapt to these changes in extreme temperatures, other life on Earth will not be able to. Wildlife will suffer and whole ecosystems could be thrown out of balance as seasons and weather patterns change.
