City Buenos Aires I can’t live up to your name. The Argentine capital simmered like never before. Residents and surrounding crowds were waiting for the miracle called rain to fall from the sky. Storms never came (just a few showers and the occasional chill) and the sun was reborn as a threat At the gates of autumn nothing like this had happened in this country for 35 years.
HE hottest summer on recordWith temperatures well above 40 degrees in March, it left its mark on the skin of men, women and children. Tiny parasitic insects known as ‘thrips’, commonly found in animals and birds, chose humans at the height of the heatwave. There was no repellent to deter them. But this is a secondary problem of an unprecedented summer that has caused wildfires, melting glaciers and massive crop loss due to lack of precipitation throughout the region. food safety risk from an agricultural exporting country.
The scientific community assures us that the climate crisis is no stranger to these scorching temperatures. Decreased water availability exacerbated the impact of the drought.
decline in exports
Wheat and soybean sales are down 28% from 2022 levels. The difference between the 2022 January harvest and the flamboyant start of 2023 is 61%. Initial calculations at the overall level are a loss of $19,000 million, equivalent to three points of GDP. Crop health is the worst in the last four decades, according to one report. The long-awaited macroeconomic stability of the Peronist government has evaporated in pieces.
Experts argue that the drought phenomenon is also a result of the cold current known as ‘La Niña’ coming from the Pacific and has been repeating for three years. Climate change is no stranger to this repetition.
Alberto Fernández Management decided Reducing the tax burden of the agriculture-export sector. “We all have a responsibility to work together to relieve rural areas and help them overcome this climatic situation,” said Economy Minister Sergio Massa. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has provided Argentina with a modest benefit in the face of exceptional circumstances: The Central Bank’s quarterly reserve target will be reduced by $3,000 million due to drought and a decline in exports.
A hot city like never before
The universe of Argentine monoculture grieves for the loss of the fields. The big city is talking about other troubles. Carolina Vera, a doctor of Atmospheric Sciences, a member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), reminded that temperatures above 34 degrees in summer in the city of Buenos Aires are really strange. It has become part of summer normality. “Status breaks all records“, says José Luis Stella of the National Meteorological Service (SMN). There have been days that were 10 degrees higher than expected.
According to the World Weather Attribution (WWA), climate change has made the probability of a heatwave-like event suffocating Argentines about 60 times and 1.4°C warmer. The electrical system has been put to the test on the busiest days. There were no power cuts. There are neighborhoods in the city of Buenos Aires that have been without electricity for more than two weeks. School activity started with almost 40 degrees and schools were not prepared. for such a situation. The capital city mayor barely advised parents to let their children enter the classroom with water bottles.
a burning future
World Weather Citation warns: high temperatures will persist, become more frequent, and worse, more severe (the fiery days of this never-ending heatwave will soon be remembered as “cold”). Climatologist Vera also expects something worse than a buildup of greenhouse gases. This dizziness, fainting and nausea on public transport, stomach and headaches, drowsiness, mood swings, lack of concentration will therefore be more frequent in residents. Even autumn is approaching, with warm temperatures that will make spring blush.
Majority of Argentines are starting to take notes Three months before this new normal The heat felt like fire, Greenpeace had done a study in this country. 68% of interviewees expressed concern about the climate crisis, linking it to deforestation (77%), excessive garbage (60%) and fossil fuel use (49%). Livestock and extensive agriculture, which experts point to as the irregularity matrix in Argentina, were not among the concerns.