How remote work can help reduce climate change
I just came back from a visit to the Netherlands in July 2022. I lived in the Netherlands for 39 years and this visit was the first time I experienced the heat of 39 degrees in the Netherlands.
This excellent article gives some great insights into climate change and the future of our climate unless drastic measures are taken.
https://english.elpais.com/society/2022-07-25/heat-waves-the-worst-is-yet-to-come.html
https://www.surinenglish.com/spain/second-hottest-july-temps-20220729161332-nt.html
Here is a very sad result of climate change and heat waves
https://inspain.news/cleaner-in-spain-died-after-working-in-the-heat-for-hours-in-a-polyester-suit-and-winter-boots/
If you work from home or remotely, you will not have to work in the burning sun or in clothes that can cause heat stroke or even death. If you have a good economic level, you can afford heating for the winter and air-conditioning in the summer.
Just today 31-7-2022 some very severe floods because of the rain in the US.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/31/weather/kentucky-appalachia-flooding-sunday/index.html
The natural disasters are spread all over the world, not specifically in one continent or the other.
While on the other hand the US faces the worst drought in 1200 years:
How can remote working help reduce climate change?
When you work remotely, there is no need for an office space to be available besides a home to live in. That office building does not need any cooling and no heating. That office building space can be nature or a space for recreation.
Also, you do not need to use a car or a place in public transport to get to and from work. Saving fuel or electricity so less global warming.
At the moment Europe is facing a difficult winter with the lack of gas reserves and the problems with gas coming from Russia. As a remote worker, you can leave a cold country in Europe and spend the winter in southern Europe or even Asia or South America where you don’t need heating at all.
You can live in less developed countries where there are much fewer emission gasses avoiding the severe effects of climate change. Or at least for example here in Spain, you can avoid the heat of the summer months by working in a much cooler country during July and August.
200.000 hectares are already burned in Spain only on the 22nd of July.
https://www.surinenglish.com/spain/over-200000-hectares-20220722101753-ntvo.html
The summer has just begun and normally the rain comes back in October so there are still two full months ahead.
In Spain, scientists have connected the depopulation of large inland areas to wildfires spreading much faster. Non-maintained land has a lot of bushes and tall grass that completely dries out in the summer and then becomes easy fuel for wildfires. If there are farms that cut the grass and water the crops, they form a natural barrier that blocks wildfires from spreading. The number of wildfires and how fast they spread and how many hectares get burned down increased in desolated areas of Spain.
CNN has done a great job with this image selection of the wildfires:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/18/world/gallery/wildfires-in-europe/index.html
The extreme weather shows
From the 15th of July 2022 in Spain, the firefighters are pushed to their limits to fight wildfires.
All helicopters and aeroplanes and firefighters that can extinguish fires are in action.
If there would not be enough capacity to fight all fires in the future, the government of Spain would have to choose which fires to fight and which ones not?!?
What would happen if they could not handle all the wildfires anymore?
If there would not be enough firefighters and fire plains to handle all the wildfires
Would the government have to choose which fires to extinguish?
There was a wildfire withing 6 kilometres of where I live last week.
I went hiking in the mountains of Spain once after a forest fire, it was not nice, the smell of fire, everything black, coal and really sad to see everything gone and burned down.
On the 26th of July, I was playing beach volleyball when a black cloud started arising
In July 2021 some extreme rain caused a lot of damage and deaths in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. (these pictures are from other locations but give a similar impression)
The video in this link gives you some idea of what devastation was caused.
