• Question: From the countries you have visited, how have the effects of climate change differed from country to country?

    Asked by CaitlinR on 10 Nov 2021.
    • Photo: Alexander De Bruin

      Alexander De Bruin answered on 10 Nov 2021:

      In the UK and Germany, I’ve seen the seasons changing character with more extremes. In the US and Australia, climate change is mostly notable by the increases in the frequency extreme weather events (hot, cold, wet, windy, etc). In China, I more noticed air quality than climate change. I visited Shanghai and the air was noticeably brown and hazy, in a way that made London feel like the Scottish countryside!

    • Photo: Michael Short

      Michael Short answered on 11 Nov 2021:

      I am from South Africa, and in Cape Town, we nearly ran out of water! We had 3 years of less rain than usual and we had to monitor everyone’s water and queue for drinking water at a local stream. I showered with a bucket for over a year, flushing the toilet with the collected water. Our wine region near Cape Town is being affected, with some years producing far less than usual, and our traditionally good regions moving further north.

      When I lived in the USA, in Pittsburgh, I noticed a difference between only 2016 and 2020. The winter months were less extreme, with less snow accumulating than in earlier years, and more extreme events along the east coast, like the polar vortex and hurricanes.

    • Photo: Sebastiano Gadolini

      Sebastiano Gadolini answered on 11 Nov 2021:

      I am from an Italian tiny village close to the mountains, and the difference from the last decade and this one is massive. It was used to snow at least from Dec to the beginning of Feb. Nowadays, if we have white rooftops for a month-ish it is a thing! I have been in Norway and UK. But, only for one year, so I do not know it changed.

    • Photo: Salma Alarefi

      Salma Alarefi answered on 11 Nov 2021:

      Where I am originally from, Libya, North Africa, the weather use to be a very nice throughout the year. Over the last 10 years, the temperature rises very high during the summer and can reach up to 45 degrees in the shade, let alone under direct sun. The high heat level means that people need to use more electricity to use air conditions to keep homes, schools, and business cooler. Because of increased use of electricity, the electrical grid can get damaged causing national blackouts.

      Libya does not usually get a lot of rain, but few weeks ago, my home country, Gharian, was heat badly by hailstone storm. The hailstones were more than centimetres in diameter
      and damaged cars and broke all glass windows.

      When I moved to live in London, I noticed a clear difference in air quality. Back home we have more that 5 huge olive trees in the garden and a number of fruits tree and other plants and the air quality is a lot better, especially early hours in the morning.

    • Photo: Alex King

      Alex King answered on 11 Nov 2021:

      Living in Switzerland for the last three years I haven’t noticed the changed there myself but locals say that weather is more unpredictable and more extreme now than ever before. There are more avalanches in recent years due to the unstable weather conditions – a weak layer in the snow is formed when temperatures rise causing the top layers of ice/snow to melt and then when temperatures drop this top layer freezes. This layer is then covered with heavy snow when the weather becomes cold again. And the icy layer sandwiched in the middle triggers avalanches. Nowadays the temperature can be vastly different day to day rather than slowly increasing and decreasing throughout the year hence the increase in avalanches

    • Photo: Natasha Marchant

      Natasha Marchant answered on 12 Nov 2021:

      I can’t say I’ve particularly noticed the changes but then I usually only travel to other countries for a short 1-2 week holiday so not really a good enough amount of time to be able to notice much about the climate change. It is probably much more noticeable for the people who live there all the time!

    • Photo: Alexander Munnoch

      Alexander Munnoch answered on 12 Nov 2021:

      Having not spent a significant amount of time outside of the UK, more extreme seasonal changes, recording of higher temperatures and more wild fires are probably the most notable observations.

    • Photo: Georgina Brogden

      Georgina Brogden answered on 12 Nov 2021:

      The effects of climate change are very noticeable in the snowy mountain ranges in Europe, such as the Alps. Every year there is less and less snow because of global warming, and the glaciers are beginning to melt.

    • Photo: Karen Fung

      Karen Fung answered on 15 Nov 2021:

      I have only travelled to different countries for short periods of time so I won’t have noticed the effects of climate change compared to those who have lived in different countries for long periods of time. However, I have travelled to Hong Kong on multiple occasions and noticed that air quality is definitely more hazy and it’s gotten more humid!

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