Summary of Key Points
This article provides a comprehensive overview of the extreme weather events that occurred globally in the summer of 2025: from record-breaking heavy rains in Zhejiang and Fujian in China, to devastating mudslides triggered by glacier collapses at the Jilong border crossing in Tibet, to three typhoons precisely hitting the same street in Zhejiang within 50 days; from thunderstorms, flash floods, and high temperatures in multiple provinces, to extreme heatwaves in Europe that caused tens of thousands of deaths, and wildfires in the United States and Canada that destroyed millions of acres of forest. All these disasters broke historical records set decades or even centuries ago. The article concludes by identifying the primary cause as the combined effect of the "strongest El Niño on record" and long-term global warming. It also reveals a counterintuitive truth: it is not the Earth, which has existed for 4.5 billion years, that is being harmed by these extreme weather events, but rather the stable living conditions that humanity has maintained for hundreds of years.
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Detailed and Easy-to-Understand Explanation
1. This year’s extreme weather is not just a minor disturbance; it’s a series of record-breaking events
Many people think that heavy rains and high temperatures occur every summer, so this year doesn’t seem particularly unusual. However, this year’s extreme weather has far exceeded the patterns of the past few decades:
- In Zhejiang, the daily rainfall in Ruian was equivalent to dumping the water from 24 West Lakes from the sky. An ancient bridge in Fujian, over a thousand years old, was completely destroyed by a flash flood. The five-story border building at Jilong in Tibet was reduced to its foundation due to a mudslide, with no safe place for helicopters to land. Even more astonishingly, three typhoons hit the same street in Yuhuan, Zhejiang, within 50 days, as if the area had been specifically targeted by typhoons three times in a row. In Guangxi, the effects of the previous typhoon had not yet subsided when another round of heavy rains hit.
- The situation abroad is even more extreme: the water levels of the Rhine and Danube rivers in Europe are so low that large cargo ships cannot navigate. This summer, 15,800 people in Germany have died from the heat, the highest death toll in a decade. In South Korea, 900,000 livestock and 1.4 million farmed fish have died from the heat. Wildfires in Canada have spread across North America, twice as severe as in previous years.
These disasters did not occur separately but all happened within just over two months, as if the weather patterns had completely changed.
2. The clustering of extreme weather is not a coincidence; two factors are causing the chaos
These abnormal weather events are not random; they are the result of two overlapping factors that have disrupted the Earth’s weather system:
- Long-term global warming: For every 1°C increase in temperature, the atmosphere can hold 7% more water vapor. This means that under the same conditions, the amount of rainfall can increase significantly. In the past 60 years, glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau have shrunk by 24%, making them more prone to breaking and triggering mudslides.
- This year’s strong El Niño: The central and eastern Pacific Ocean has become abnormally warm, disrupting the global distribution of rainfall and temperatures. Areas that should receive rain are suffering from drought, while others are facing prolonged heat. The intensity of this year’s El Niño is likely to exceed that of the events in 1998 and 2015, making it the most severe on record.
3. Extreme weather is not unrelated to your daily life; it’s already affecting your wallet
Many people think that heavy rains and high temperatures are just news and have no impact on their lives or finances. However, the effects are much more immediate than you might think:
- Food prices will rise first, as heavy rains destroy farmland and high temperatures kill livestock and fish. This will lead to higher prices for vegetables, pork, and seafood. Global logistics will also be affected, as ships transporting coal, grain, and chemical materials will have difficulty navigating. The cost of imported fertilizers, oil, and electronic products will increase, affecting the prices of all goods you buy. Power supply will be under pressure, with a higher likelihood of temporary outages during hot weather. Insurance premiums for cars and homes will also rise, as insurance companies will need to absorb the increased costs due to the frequent disasters.
- The destruction at the Jilong border crossing in Tibet has halted trade with Nepal, leading to higher prices for imported crafts and spices. These effects are unavoidable.
4. We need to protect our comfortable lives, not the Earth itself
This article points out a common misconception: there is no such thing as “saving the Earth.” The Earth has survived periods 10 degrees warmer or colder than now, and the greenhouse gases emitted by humans are negligible compared to its overall resilience. What is truly vulnerable is humanity’s infrastructure, such as drainage systems, crops, transportation networks, and supply chains, which were all designed based on relatively stable weather patterns from the past century. We need to protect the stable environment that we have built over the past century to ensure our well-being.
5. A practical reminder for everyone
Extreme weather will become the new norm. People should stop relying on past experiences and make changes:
- Prepare for emergencies by stocking up on water, non-perishable food, and emergency lights for a couple of days. When buying a house, avoid low-lying areas prone to flooding and areas near slopes that could collapse. Pay attention to the terms of insurance policies that cover extreme weather, as they can provide significant relief in case of disasters. The old assumptions (e.g., heavy rains lasting only a week or stopping after a couple of hours) are no longer valid.