What are the threats?
What awaits Poland?
“
It is hot, dry, the amount of water in the ground and in the rivers begins to fall (…) at some point this water is so little that we can not use it to cool power plants. And at this point, the energy system breaks down. The communication, air conditioning, and transport is breaks down (…) The forests are raging with fire. Food in supermarkets, warehouses, homes begins to spoil…
- Prof. dr hab. Szymon Malinowski, atmosphere physicist
„Duży Format”, November 10, 2018
threats.fires.full
- High temperature favors
- the spread of fires.
- Athens, Ukraine, Finland, Latvia…
- In July 2018 forest fires occurred
- throughout Europe. Forests and
- buildings burned in southern Ukraine.
- Over 1,000 hectares of land burned
- in Latvia. Will we only start
- to worry about it when the fires
- begin to devastate Poland?
threats.heatwaves.full
- According to the World Meteorological
- Organization, a heat wave is a period
- lasting more than 5 days in which the
- maximum temperatures in a given place
- and day are higher than the average
- maximum temperature by at least 5°C
- (compared to the average from 1961-1990).
- Due to climate change, warm days
- and heat waves will occur more
- and more often, and cold days
- less and less. In July and
- August 2015, a record number
- of days with temperatures above
- 30°C was recorded in Poland.
threats.droughts.full
- The increase in air temperature
- and the change in the structure
- of atmospheric rain directly affects
- the moisture of soils and water
- resources, causing the phenomenon of drought.
- As a result of the drought which took place
- in central and western Poland in 2018, the losses
- amounted to over PLN 3.5 million, and the
- number of crops decreased by at least 20%.
threats.floods.full
- The change in the structure of atmospheric
- precipitation promotes the occurrence of floods, the
- most common extreme phenomenon in Europe.
- Floods cause the deaths of people and animals,
- constitute epidemiological threat and contribute to
- the destruction of infrastructure and the environment.
- The flood wave on the Vistula in 2010 resulted
- in flooding over 2,000 village. Losses caused
- by it reached about PLN 12.2 billion.
threats.wars.full
- In the years 2006 - 2010, the
- drought in Syria led to the collapse
- of agriculture in the north-eastern
- part of the country and mass
- migration of people from areas
- to cities. Poor living conditions
- in the cities resulted in intensification
- of political tensions. This in turn
- became the source of the 2011
- revolution, which led to the ongoing
- civil war in this country.
threats.migrations.full
- In Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin
- America and South Asia as
- many as 143 million people will
- be forced to change their place
- of residence within their own
- country, or to move to a neighboring
- country. If we do not stop the
- rise in temperature, by 2100 the
- number of migrants arriving in Europe
- will increase to a million per year.
threats.biological.full
- Since the 1970s, we have contributed
- to the extermination of 60% of
- vertebrate species. This is the
- result of destroying their habitats
- and degradation and
- overexploitation of wildlife.
- Currently, 27% of species are threatened
- with extinction. If the temperature rises
- by another degree, we can say goodbye
- to coral reefs and half the sea fish
- stocks in developing countries.
threats.diseases.full
- As a result of climate change, infectious
- diseases are spreading faster and easier.
- The number of people afflicted with
- lyme disease transmitted by ticks
- has tripled over the past 10 years
- and tick-borne encephalitis has
- increased more than eleven
- times (over the past 21 years).
- In 2018, compared to the previous year, the
- incidence of West Nile fever in Europe
- increased more than threefold.
- We can expect it will be even worse.
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