07/10/2017
We’re going to burn. Ask me why.
2017, October 10. The thermometer reads 36ºC and it’s ok…if we were in July. However, we are now in October and we should expect 10 to 15ºC. So what heat is this? What climate is this that brings us such extreme temperatures, and then the wildfires, in a time were soon we should be looking for Christmas? And what drought is this that we can’t see a drop of rain for almost 6 months? It would be ok if we were in Central Africa where this climate should be considered as…normal…! But no. We’re in Portugal. A country where it used to snow in the winter and where mild temperatures were not occasional, but usual.
Everyone knows what’s really happening. Global warning, el ninõ, la ninã are all words defining the same phenomenon which consists of manmade climate changes. It all goes along with this year’s unprecedent number of storms, hurricanes and tornados that run Central America killing people, devastating houses and causing economic havoc on the affected countries. Yes, that’s it: extreme amounts of water on one place, extreme lack of water in another place.
We used to speak and think about these changes as something that would occur in a faraway future. No! Make no mistake. We can now see the differences one year after the other. Maybe we are not going to burn but we will surely be suffering for what we have done to nature.
Luis Quintal Costa
