Climate Change: Turbulence, Longer Days, and Europe in Danger

The climate crisis is causing significant changes in the Earth’s atmosphere, leading to weaker jet streams and an increase in turbulence during passenger flights. This turbulence, often invisible and undetectable by conventional radar, is becoming more frequent due to global warming. Clear-air turbulence, which has become more common over the United States and the North Atlantic Ocean, has increased by 55% from 1979 to 2020.

In addition to affecting air travel, the climate crisis is also impacting the Earth’s spin and its daily rotation. Melting ice from Greenland and Antarctica is adding to the mass of the oceans, causing the planet to slow down its spin. Consequently, days are getting longer by milliseconds due to these changes. The influence of the climate crisis on the length of days is reported to be more significant than the effect of the Moon.

Furthermore, extreme weather events like storms, heatwaves, and floods, intensified by climate change, have caused between 85,000 and 145,000 deaths in Europe over the last 40 years, with more than 85% of these deaths attributed to heat-related causes. These events have also resulted in economic losses totaling around half a trillion euros in Europe. It’s worth noting that Europe is experiencing the most rapid warming among all continents, leading to increased storm intensity and rising sea levels across most of its territory, with the exception of the northern part of the Baltic Sea.