Many citizens have felt in recent hours like Abraracúrcix, the chief of the Gallic village in the adventures of the comic book hero Asterix, who only feared one thing in his life: that the sky would collapse on his head. And it is that the hailstorm that fell on Tuesday night in various regions of Girona has turned the irony of the French screenwriter René Goscinny into a very real threat. Hailstones of half a kilo at 100 kilometers per hour that claimed the life of a girl and various injuries, in addition to causing considerable losses in buildings and vehicles. Nothing like it had ever been seen.
The experts do well to immediately clarify that these atmospheric phenomena have nothing to do with climate change and that they are so sporadic and localized that they are outside the environmental crisis that the planet is suffering. But, without a doubt, the impact they have on public opinion contributes to a greater sensitivity in favor of sustainability policies. Climate change deniers will continue to say that the heat of this summer or the drought of recent months in Spain is something normal and cyclical, which is far from it. That is why it is so important that when faced with an unexpected phenomenon such as this unusual hailstorm, environmentalists are not tempted to use it as proof of the climate crisis. One thing is the convergence at the same time of the drought in China with the floods in Pakistan and quite another is the hailstorm of the last few hours. At a particular level, far from the precisions of scientists, it is worth noting that hailstorms ceased to be something fun that children enjoyed and have now become a threat that means that when they appear The most sensible thing is to take cover from them.
In the end, the consequence is that we have never talked about the climate as much as now, which is still something very positive because it helps to raise general awareness. But the hailstones that have fallen in recent hours are not the result of climate change.
