Too hot to handle?

The effects of global heating could soon reach a tipping point, but there are fears the summit in Egypt will get bogged down in recriminations as the damage accelerates

- Robin McKie

It has been an alarming time for climate scientists. One by one, the grim scenarios they had outlined for the near future have been overtaken by events: extreme storms, droughts, floods and ice-sheet collapses whose sudden appearances have outstripped researchers' worst predictions. Catastrophic climate change is happening more rapidly and with greater intensity than their grimmest warnings, it transpires.

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES

The "Dixie Fire" started in Butte County on 13 July 2021 and burned 390,000 hectares before being contained on 25 October. It was the largest single wildfire in California's history and damaged or destroyed several small towns.

Examples include this summer's record high temperature of 40.3C in the UK, a massive jump of 1.6C on the previous hottest day; torrential rains that triggered the most severe flooding in Pakistan's recent history; and last year's Hurricane Ida, one of the most destructive storms to have struck the US.

It is not that global temperatures have risen faster than expected. The problem is that the effect of this rise has been unexpectedly extreme.

SOUTH AMERICA DROUGHT

Wide areas of subtropical South America recorded their driest years on record in 2021. Rainfall was well below average in much of central and southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and north Argentina, leading to major agricultural losses.

LOUISIANA'S HURRICANE IDA

One of the deadliest and most destructive category 4 Atlantic hurricanes struck the southern state in 2021 and became the second most damaging and intense in its history, behind only Hurricane Katrina in 2005.