The Olympic Games The year 2024 opened with the week that marked the hottest day on Earth.
It’s a different kind of record breaking that excites athletes in Paris, but the climate crisis is making it harder for organizers to keep the tournament on track.
During the opening ceremony, the month-long rain and its consequences strained the city’s 200-year-old sewage system. The resulting discharge of untreated sewage delayed the organization of the triathlon, which included a swimming race in the Seine.
The heavy rain that fell in the French capital over the weekend was quickly replaced by warm heat. Such a violent transition between two extreme weather events is typical of Earth’s changing climate, according to a new study.
Extreme weather, extreme sports
Scientists have long warned that warmer air holds more moisture.
Since the systematic burning of fossil fuels began, the Earth has warmed about 1.5°C, added 10% more water vapor to the lower atmosphere and made storms rainier.
What’s less clear is how all that extra moisture will be distributed. The new analysis shows it will be more uneven, with successive droughts followed by torrential rains and fewer days of rain in a given location for more than a year. Conversation.
It happened in Paris, and the city’s sewage system – built largely in a pre-industrial climate – was poorly designed.
“It’s hard to imagine any sport in the world right now that doesn’t face the prospect of serious compromises to extreme weather, either now or in the future,” says Mark Charlton, public policy lecturer at De Montfort University.
Marathons are now run at midnight, bike races have been reduced and ski seasons are getting shorter.
In fact, winter sports have a particularly dubious future. The International Olympic Committee has postponed its decision on the selection of the city that will host the 2030 Winter Olympic Games due to the gloomy forecast of snowy weather.