Climate change: US Great Lakes impacted by global warming after heatwaves and droughts in Europe
Several long-standing records were shattered when temperatures climbed beyond 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in different regions of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia between June and August 2022.
The same may now be said about the United States of America (USA), as the Great Salt Lake, the country’s biggest salty lake and the eighth-largest in the world (by area), has seen its water levels decline and its surface area shrink.
In the image above, a composite of two Landsat images acquired in June 1985, shows the lake when water elevation levels were unusually high (4,209.7 feet/1,283.1 meters), due to a string of years with heavy rains and large amounts of runoff from melting snow. The second image, a composite of two July 2022 Landsat images, shows the lake when water elevation levels neared record low levels (4,190.2 feet/1,252.5 meters), according to data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at Saltair Boat Harbor.
Newly exposed portions of the lakebed appear as white fringes along the edge of the lake. Water levels in the southern part of the lake usually stand a bit higher than in the northern half because more tributaries flow into the southern section. Though water levels in the Great Salt Lake can fluctuate by year, they have generally been declining for decades.
Well, droping water level is not only limited to US, even countries, like Spain, Germany, Portugal, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in Europe, are enduring droughts this summer that have hurt farmers and shippers and promoted authorities to restrict water use.
The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre warned this week that drought conditions will get worse and potentially affect 47 percent of the continent.
“While there is a clear pattern of an ‘atmospheric wave’ with alternating warm (redder) and cool (bluer) values in different locations, this large area of extreme (and record breaking) heat is another clear indicator that emissions of greenhouse gases by human activity are causing weather extremes that impact our living conditions,”remarked NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Chief Global Modeling and Assimilation Office Steven Pawson.
In Europe, no one has found a way to escape the fury of nature. A timetable for reducing carbon emissions to combat climate change is being presented, but no one knows when it will come to an end. The amount of time in which the pollutants will remain under control is a mystery.