The hottest places in America with climate change | Climate and environment

Global warming is a fact proven by climate science. The acceleration of this process in the past four decades is also common. But not the whole world is experiencing warming at the same rate: on the American continent, the North has seen a greater increase than the South; rich countries, more than middle income countries; And the coasts, especially the Atlantic Ocean, more inland. Although some of these trends may change.

Compared to the 1950 to 1980 average, temperatures in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean increased by about 1.2°C. About four-fifths of the increase occurred in just one decade: the 1990s. This was the ultimate awareness of global warming, with the hole in the ozone layer (today in decline) and the “greenhouse effect” as the heroes. But the gradual change in consumption patterns, especially energy, facilitated by access to better technologies and new regulatory mechanisms, as well as international treaties and protocols, has slowed (though not slowed) the rise in the twenty-first century, when South America took the reins : From 2003 to 2015, the increase was as large as it has been in the past 25 years. The rate of temperature rise doubled.

However, North America, the United States and especially Canada have accumulated the highest increases in average temperature since the 1960s, at a significant distance from the rest of the countries. It is no coincidence that they are the two countries with the highest degrees of economic development on the continent: fossil fuels have been necessary to promote growth and well-being, and this is the result.

In the same way, they remain so today, especially for those countries that aspire to join the higher-income club. These countries tend to view a certain imbalance in redistribution, a fact that they are now seeking precisely to implement transboundary limits on emissions: when they are no longer necessary for those who depended on them to achieve growth goals. Although the Paris Commitment has already included compensation mechanisms to rebalance opportunities, the specifics of its implementation during Glasgow climate summit He keeps the conversation open about the weight that each country must bear to stop warming. On the American continent, the political derivatives of this divide are expressed especially clearly in the case of large countries that, such as Mexico NS Brazil, require more financing with a transactional approach.

But the largest division that can be seen is still geographical: Andean countries, regardless of their level of income, are those that have experienced the most modest increases. La Paz (Bolivia), the highest capital on the continent, rises +0.64 degrees. At similar levels are Puno or Cusco, in the mountains of Peru. But it is enough to go up a little to the north, and approach a more temperate or warm environment directly, so that the numbers are multiplied twice: this is the case of cities such as Medellin (Colombia), Guayaquil (Ecuador) or practically. All capitals of Central America.

In fact, coastal exposures, especially in the temperate fringes, and more strongly on the eastern slope (coasts toward the Atlantic), determines stronger temperature rises. Thus, the entire New England urban waterfront, from Edison to Boston, has experienced +2.8 degree increases in the past 60 years. Less than Halifax, a little further north after the Canadian border (+3.08 degrees), Anchorage (Alaska’s capital: +3.05 degrees), or Winnipeg, in the Canadian province of Manitoba, is the city of all that the continent has experienced. The largest increase (+3.41 degrees).

As is the case with the site in areas with a drier climate or directly desert. The US-Mexico border (Phoenix, Arizona: +2.5 degrees; Reynosa, Tamaulipas: +2.35) is a good example. So is Brazil, where the semi-arid region and northeastern savannah bear the most prominent impacts: the Juzero or Timon regions experienced increases exceeding 30% of those observed in Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo.

The Zoom In Brazil, coming down to the level of specific weather stations, it plots the overall pattern more clearly, but more or fewer dark spots than expected in certain regions also appear, highlighting the innate variability in data measurements such as flow. soil temperature.

Inevitably, the more we focus on a particular site, the more likely we are to find data that does not appear consistent with the warming trend. But these specific deviations do not invalidate the global trend that is reflected in statistical means. They express only the inescapable characteristics of a universal phenomenon.

Methodology and sources. All data comes from the project Berkeley Earth, which collects systematically and with internal quality controls temperature reports from weather stations around the world.

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