There is a natural disaster that killed 70,000 people in 2003 and 60,000 people in 2022. It is not an earthquake, flood, or tsunami, but a heatwave. In Europe alone, so many people died from heatwave.

Everyone knows that the climate crisis is serious. In the past, we thought that only polar bears and animals would die from the climate crisis, but now, we ourselves are the ones who may die from the climate crisis.

Europe suffered from heatwave from June to August 2022. Due to the record-breaking heatwave of 40-43℃, many people died from the heatwave in European regions such as Italy, Greece, Spain, and Germany. Experts predicted that this kind of heatwave would continue to recur.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration strongly predicted that 2023 would be the hottest year since the 19th century, and experts warned that the heatwave could not be avoided even in the summer of 2024. Some people say, "You can just turn on the air conditioner if it's hot," or "It's not easy to die from heatwave," but simply avoiding heatwave is not solving the problem, it is avoiding the problem.

In Maui Island, Hawaii, a wildfire broke out due to the hot air heat, killing 97 people, and in Libya, a tropical storm caused heavy rain, resulting in floods and the disappearance of about 10,000 people. Why is the heatwave phenomenon occurring?

First, it is due to global warming, which we all know well. As the average temperature of the earth rises, the summer temperature in Europe also rises. Specifically, we can talk about the El Niño phenomenon. The El Niño phenomenon refers to the phenomenon in which the sea surface temperature of the eastern Pacific Ocean remains higher than normal. Normally, cold water from the deep sea rises to maintain the water temperature, but the sea is not functioning properly, causing the sea surface temperature to rise.

Experts predict that 2024 will be the hottest year due to the El Niño phenomenon. The El Niño phenomenon is expected to affect until the spring of 2024, and the impact of the El Niño phenomenon is expected to cause dry weather in Australia and some parts of Asia, and a weakening of the monsoon climate in India.

The Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGLOBAL) in Spain and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) conducted a joint study and warned that if the heatwave trend continues, 120,000 people could die from heatwave every year by 2050.

Now, no one is safe from the climate crisis. What efforts is the world making to solve the climate crisis?

The Paris Agreement on Climate Change adopted in 2015 is a climate agreement that has been applied since 2021. Although it is regrettable that it is not legally binding under international law, it is the first climate agreement that is legally binding on all 195 signatory countries. The Paris Agreement stipulates that each country must submit a higher greenhouse gas reduction target every 5 years from 2020 onwards, and has the goal of limiting the average temperature of the earth to 1.5℃ or less. However, as mentioned earlier, it is not legally binding and each country sets its own goals voluntarily, so there are limitations that its effectiveness is below expectations.

The earth in the future will be hotter than the earth we have lived on so far, and humanity will suffer more damage. In other words, it means that we will not be able to live on the earth in the future with only the efforts we have made so far. The international community needs to set more binding and future-oriented goals for solving the climate crisis for present and future generations.