The results of failing to keep the world’s temperature down are beginning to show.Extreme weather events are likely to become more frequent, and the world’s peoples and their governments are being urged to do more to handle climate change.

Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, an environmental group in Beijing, said the consensus among scientists now is that “climate change has resulted in an increase in extreme weather events across the globe, including temperature extremes, heavy rains, river floods, droughts, storms, as well as compound events”.

Over the past few years heat waves have occurred in places that had previously enjoyed mild weather, higher temperatures have occurred in normally colder regions, and places that are hot are now frequently enduring wildfires, he said, citing a report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) that includes a whole chapter on weather extremes.

The IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report said it is an“established fact”that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions have led to an increased frequency of some weather and climate extremes since preindustrial times.

The global surface temperature is now about 1.09C higher than in the preindustrial period(1850-1900), with stronger warming over land (1.59 C) than over oceans.

Extreme weather events have continued to hit the glebe this year and have killed many people, disrupted (扰乱) the lives of millions and disrupted production.

In Europe, after a summer of extremely high temperatures, violent thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds have hit the continent, leaving at least 13 people dead in Austria, France and Italy by Friday, authorities said.

The Netherlands is one of many European countries that have suffered drought this summer, bringing water shortages in the low-lying country as inland rivers and lakes have fallen to historically low levels.

Ocean water can be used to cool buildings. This idea could help cities reduce their carbon footprint and slow climate change. Although plentiful, ocean water is too salty to drink. But it could serve as an important and still largely untapped resource which was known to few people for many coastal cities. The idea came to Zi Zhang shortly after she moved from Michigan to Hong Kong a few years ago to get a PhD in engineering.

In 2013, Hong Kong built a system that used seawater to cool part of the city. The system pumps cold seawater into a plant with heat exchangers. The seawater absorbs heat to chill (冷却) pipes full of circulating water. That chilled water then flows into buildings to cool their rooms. This type of system tends to use far less energy than typical air conditioners. Zhang wondered: How much water and energy had this way saved Hong Kong? And why weren’t other coastal cities doing this? Zhang and her team set out for answers. The group focused on Hong Kong and two other big coastal cities: Jeddah and Miami. The idea was to see what it might look like if all three adopted city-wide saltwater systems. The cities’ climates were quite different. But all three were densely populated, which should minimize some costs.

All three places would save lots of freshwater, the researchers found. Miami could save 16 percent of the freshwater it uses each year. Hong Kong, with more non-drinking-water needs, was saving up to 28 percent. Estimated energy savings ranged from just 3 percent in Jeddah to 11 percent in Miami. These savings came from the more efficient saltwater air conditioning. Also, the cities would need less energy to treat salty wastewater than they have been using to treat sewage now.

Though costly to build, saltwater-cooling systems could pay off in the long run for many cities. And because these systems use so much less electricity, they’re greener and emit (排放) less carbon-rich greenhouse gases. Scientists refer to this as a type of decarbonization (脱碳).

These days a green building means more than just the color of the paint. Green building can also refer to environmentally friendly houses, factories, and offices.

Green building means “reducing the impact (影响) of the building on the land”, Taryn Holowka of the U.S. Green Building Council in Washington, D.C., said.

According to Holowka, building accounts for (占了) 65 percent of total U.S. electricity use.   

But green building can reduce energy and water use. Also, the building are often located near public transportation such as buses and subways, so that people can drive their cars less. That could be good for the environment, because cars use lots of gas and give off pollution. Green building are often built on developed land, so that the buildings don’t destroy forests.

Marty Dettling is project manger for a building that put these ideas into action . The Solaire has been called the country’s first green high-rise building. According to Dettling, “We’ve reduced our energy use by one-third and our water by 50 percent,”

The Solaire cuts energy in past by using solar power. “ On the face of the building we have solar panels which change the sun’s energy into electricity,” Dettling explained.

The Solaire also has lights that automatically turn off when people leave the room. In addition, the building has lots of windows, allowing people to use the sun for light during the day. The Solaire cuts water reusing it.

Not everyone is eager to move into a green building, however. Some people think that things like solar panels cost more money than more traditional energy sources. Anyhow, Holowka said, “It’s going to be big.”