Europe is the fastest-warming continent, at nearly twice the average global rate, report says
Europe is the fastest-warming continent and its temperatures are rising at roughly twice the global average, two top climate monitoring organizations reported Monday, warning of the consequences for human health, glacier melt and economic activity.
The U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s climate agency, Copernicus, said in a joint report that the continent has the opportunity to develop targeted strategies to speed up the transition to renewable resources like wind, solar and hydroelectric power in response to the effects of climate change.
The continent generated 43% of its electricity from renewable resources last year, up from 36% the year before, the agencies say in their European State of the Climate report for last year. More energy in Europe was generated from renewables than from fossil fuels for the second year running.
Most of Europe already has long dark winters.
To give you some parallels, at a latitude of 45° N you have Montreal in Canada, which already has long dark winters. In Europe, 45° N grazes the northern Adriatic, which is part of the Mediterranean. Everything else is above that.
The Gulf Stream really does make a difference though. The average temps are a lot more bearable, even in the dark winters, as far north as the Nordic capitals.
Helsinki gets average 25h of real sun in january. Berlin 47 Amstersam 63 Lyon 74 Marseille 150
Differences in avg sunshine within europe are huge, and scandinavia is fucking dark in winter, 25h is really very different from 60-ish hours for how depressed one might get from lack of sunlight. Not for me.
But think of how much sunlight you are getting in the summer!