Analysis: How snow in southern Brazil is linked to global warming
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Atypical cold spells usually raise a question among the unwary: “If we are experiencing global warming, why is it so cold?” However, global warming is not necessarily limited to an increase in global temperatures.
It may seem paradoxical to discuss global warming and extreme cold, but they are very much related to each other – which may explain the abnormal snow on Brazilian soil.
The explanation
Global warming is the consequence of the worsening greenhouse effect. The atmosphere has gases such as water vapor and carbon dioxide (CO2) that act as a blanket around the planet, maintaining a temperature favorable to human survival.
But since the 18th century mankind has increased the amount of carbon in the air, from burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests (which convert CO2 into oxygen), for instance. Thus, the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere has been intensified, causing the planet’s heat absorption and average temperature to rise.
The Earth’s climate has a natural variability. With warmer temperatures, the planet tries to respond to this unexpected situation by seeking to return to a normal climate (more or less like perspiration, which serves to balance the body’s temperature when we overheat). And it is in these reactions that extreme situations of cold, heat, drought or rain are generated.
“Atmospheric circulation systems are altered because of warming. Cold air masses can generate extreme events of lower temperatures or much more humid air masses can generate floods, for example,” explains Tércio Ambrizzi, professor at the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of São Paulo (IAG-USP).
“The atmosphere’s general circulation responds in an extreme way to the rise in temperature, causing extreme events as well,” he adds.
What happens, therefore, are changes in the planet’s natural dynamics. Thus, global warming amplifies the occurrence of extreme events – such as storms and floods in Europe or intense heat in Canada.
And a number of studies have shown that global warming is increasing. It has been found that the Earth is trapping almost twice as much heat as it was 16 years ago, and that abnormal temperatures resulting from climate change – extreme cold and heat events – are leading to 5 million deaths a year.
According to Ambrizzi, the recent intense cold and snow in Brazil may indeed be related to these climate changes. “The cold wave we are experiencing is something that has happened in the past and is part of the planet’s natural variability,” the professor says.
“But over the past few years, it has been occurring less frequently and more intensely. Global warming leads to an increase in extreme [events], so it may be related to this abnormal cold in Brazil.”
Events like these could become increasingly intense should the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions continue – and if humans continue to give so little thought to the environment.
“We can see that our government shows very little concern for the environment, and that’s truly sad,” Ambrizzi warns. “We are contributing negatively to global warming – and we will be punished in the long run.”
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