4 preconceived (and denied) ideas about climate change

“All this rain in 2024… it’s not the droughts that the IPCC told us! »

The findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in 2021 are clear that climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation events since the 1950s. Every degree of The additional temperature increases the water vapor content of the atmosphere by about 7%. This results in more pluvial flooding, depending on location and year.

“It’s a natural cycle…”

In the past, natural factors may have created a warm climate, but the warming currently observed is occurring at a much greater rate than that reconstructed over the last 10,000 years.

CO2, methane, nitrous oxide: greenhouse gases accumulated in the atmosphere since the 19th century cause current disorders. The influence of man on the climate system is clearly established.

“Brrr, it’s really cold this week. Where is your global warming? »

Climate skeptics often ironically refer to cold episodes, which are one-off weather-related events, in order to deny the continuous and rapid rise in temperatures over several decades. Climate change also results in extreme weather episodes. But on average, we break ten hot records for every one cold record.

“Man has always known how to adapt, so why worry? »

Due to human activities, the Earth has warmed by 1.2°C in a century and a half. Very fast considering what humanity has known. This rhythm is out of step with that of living species, which need time to adapt. The challenge today is no longer to stop climate change, but to slow it down, then stabilize it.