LETTER FROM HAPPY ENGLISH SCHOOL Aug. 21st, 2023

The typhoon seven swept through the Kansai district, but fortunately it did not do a lot of damage to Osaka. However, it disrupted the transportation system here and actually I had to cancel our trip by train in the midsummer. Anyway, staying safe and healthy is the most important thing.

How are you spending this summer? Are you engaged in any outdoor activities? It is so hot that I do not feel like working outdoors. My main chore outside is just to water plants. While doing the job, I sweat a lot and am bitten by a lot of mosquitoes. It is so discouraging! I admire people who work outside briskly. Even though they wear vests with electric fans, it must be extremely hard to do their jobs in the searing summer heat. The temperature outside this summer is well above the body temperature rising close to 40 degrees Celsius, which is a life threating level of heat. Moreover, it is expected to get even hotter year by year. How can people survive that burning hell?

We know how rapidly the earth has warmed up. Everybody must take it seriously now that time is ticking. How can we reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet the goal to limit global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels set by the Paris agreement? Beyond that point, what with disasters, crop failures and species extinction, Earth might be no longer the place where we can lead our lives comfortably. The fact is that our planet has already warmed an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius since the industrial age.

What should we do to stop global warming at the individual level? As you know, we need to save energy, use cars less, recycle more, plant trees and make better consumption choices, but they do not seem to be enough to fight climate change. We need to push at least the Japanese government to focus more on the shift to renewable energy and to do more to help stop wars in the world, which not only destroy human lives and infrastructure but also accelerate pollution and deforestation.

台風一過。大阪にはあまり被害がなくよかったですが、お盆の予定がかなり狂ったことでしょう。この暑さでは、外に出て何をするにも危険かもしれません。外でファン付きのベストをつけて働いている人には感心します。

この暑さは尋常ではなく、進むglobal warmingを止めなければなりません。年ごとに温度が上がり、災害が増え地球が住める状態でなくなるといわれています。

私たちに何ができるでしょう個人のレベルではエネルギーの消費を抑える、リサイクルする、ごみを減らす、環境に配慮した消費者になる、緑を増やすなどあるでしょう。しかし、それだけでは十分ではありません。

温度の上昇を産業革命前の1.5度に抑える目標を守らなければ、温度上昇がさらに進みもっと災害が多発するようになるといわれています。現在のところ、すでに地球の温度はその時以来１.１度上がっています。

政府に、再生可能エネルギーにしっかり移行し公害や森林破壊となる世界での戦争がなくなるよう、もっと尽力するように働きかけなければ地球温暖化を止めるのは難しいでしょう。