Heat Is On

Most Japanese asked a question to themselves this summer: What is the reason of this strange whether? One answer came from an international organization of scientists. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading international body for the assessment of climate change established by United Nations Environment Programme and World Meteorological Organization, asserted that there was no room for doubting climate change happening and its main reason had been human activities. Nevertheless, there is no sign in this small island country to take action for that.

The panel is going to release the fifth assessment report. According to reports, it includes predictions that by the end of this century global temperature is likely to rise by 0.3°C to 4.8°C, and that sea levels are expected to rise by 26cm to 82cm. Global warming is likely to exceed the threshold of 2°C, which was set by the scientists as a start line for serious change of the earth. Burning of fossil fuels was the main reason of 40% increase of CO2 since industrial revolution. The oceans are supposed to have absorbed a third of CO2 emitted from human activities. “Heat is on. We must act,” told Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. Secretary General.

The Japanese witnessed some extraordinary phenomena, which are supposed to be brought by climate change. In a city of southern part of Shikoku Island, it marked new record of temperature this summer, which was 41.0°C. This summer was too hot for old agers and kids to be active outside buildings in the daytime. Some tornadoes swept the land unprecedentedly. Fishermen seeking saury, which is a typical fish for dining in the fall, get damaged, because school of the fish refused to get down to the south in Pacific Ocean due to its still high water temperature.

After the accident of First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, the Japanese are dependent on thermal generation using fossil fuels for their electric power. The internal arguments are too busy on resumption of reactors in nuclear power plants to promote renewable energy. Although the dependence has been meeting urgent need for electricity after the nuclear disaster two year ago, some elites in Japan, deeply involved in “atomic village,” are taking advantage of low carbon emission of nuclear energy for survival of the village. Sustainability of energy does not matter with them.

While it still is highly dependent on fossil fuels, China is rapidly developing wind power these years. Germany is seeking zero option of nuclear power. The leaders in Japan are intensively ignoring this international trend to protect specific domestic interests. As seen in the negotiation with United States over ban of beef suspicious for mad cow disease, the Japanese might be unfit for scientific thinking.