2018’s Hemispheric Heat Wave Wasn't Possible Without Climate Change, Scientists Say

As temperatures spiked across a large part of the Northern Hemisphere last summer, I got an alarming call from my mother, who was living in Linz, Austria. She was dizzy and disoriented, and she hadn't been sleeping.

Eduardo Velev cools off in the spray of a fire hydrant in
Philadelphia during a July 2018 heat wave. Scientists say
 last summer's extreme heat across the Northern Hemisphere
 wouldn’t have happened without human-induced climate change.

The region had been suffering through several weeks of above average day and nighttime temperatures, and when I arrived, her apartment building felt like a concrete oven. Her symptoms sounded like heat exhaustion.

We helped her pack a bag, checked on an elderly neighbor with similar symptoms, and then left the sweltering city for a mountain lake like we were first-world climate refugees.

A study presented this week at a scientific conference in Vienna now shows that last summer's extreme heat was an "unprecedented" hemispheric event that would not have happened without heat-trapping greenhouse gas pollution, the researchers said, and that it lasted longer and was more widespread across the Northern Hemisphere than previously realized.

Read the story from Inside Climate News by Bob Berwyn - “2018’s Hemispheric Heat Wave Wasn't Possible Without Climate Change, Scientists Say.”

Australia is the canary, and the coalmine, for the world when it comes to water stress

The northern hemisphere faced a polar vortex, while Australia during December and January was the hottest on record. People and the environment are suffering at both ends of the planet because of the extreme events.

 Australia’s heatwave has exposed cracks in our
unsustainable water, land-use and climate policies.

Australia’s heatwave has exposed cracks in our unsustainable water, land-use and climate policies.

Fish kills in the Darling River, followed by more in other waterways, are being blamed on drought. More than one million fish died following multiple events in December and January.

The public has been aghast. The catalyst for outrage has been viral videos of hundreds of Murray cod floating dead and being displayed by angry locals. Murray cod is an icon of Australian waterways and one of the world’s largest species of freshwater fish. The biggest Murray cod – allegedly 114kg – was caught in 1902, during the federation drought in a tributary of the Darling, near Walgett.

Read the story from The Guardian by R. Keller Kopf - “Australia is the canary, and the coalmine, for the world when it comes to water stress.”

For us to tackle climate change, companies need to pay their tax

It’s been a year of natural disasters. After Irma, Maria, Harvey, hurricane Florence left a devastating landscape in the Caribbean. Extreme temperatures across the northern hemisphere have caused devastating fires from Europe to the US. Dozens have been killed in the Philippines after typhoon Mangkhut triggered landslides.

‘The IMF reports that the revenue lost from tax
evasion in developing countries is 1.3 times larger,
 as a share of GDP, than it is in advanced economies.’

And the worst consequences of climate change are yet to come.

It is a huge challenge for rich countries and for developing nations, a sisyphean task: how to collect enough revenue to respond to major catastrophes, while at the same time trying to lift billions of people out of poverty?

Look at Indonesia. Disasters are a familiar tragedy in the world’s fourth most populous nation, with its thousands of islands across hundreds of miles of ocean. This should make disaster risk planning crucial. It is not the case, as the latest earthquake and tsunami showed. Reports revealed that parts of the tsunami alert system didn’t work. In some areas, there were no sirens at all. The death toll is still climbing.

Read the opinion piece by Wayne Swan from The Guardian - “For us to tackle climate change, companies need to pay their tax.”

Climate change will increase deaths by suicide

Extreme heat has gripped the northern hemisphere in recent months, and the year 2018 is on track to be among the hottest ever recorded. Higher global temperatures are expected to have detrimental effects on our natural environments and our physical health, but what will they do to our mental health?

People use misters to cool down in Montréal,
 Monday, July 2, 2018, during a heatwave in the city. 

New research from an international team of scientists suggests that one of the most tangible impacts may be an increase in suicide rates.

Suicide is already among the leading causes of death worldwide. For people aged 15-55 years, it is among the top five causes of death. Worldwide nearly one million people die by suicide each year — more than all deaths from war and murder combined.

Read the story from The Conversation - “Climate change will increase deaths by suicide.”

‘Massive damage': monster storms to slam into east coasts of US, China

A surge in storm activity in the northern hemisphere has spawned "monster" Hurricane Florence in the North Atlantic, super Typhoon Mangkhut in the north-west Pacific and a string of other dangerous tropical tempests.

Hurricane Florence and Super Typhoon Mangkhut.

More than a million people have been ordered to be evacuated along a 500-kilometre stretch of the US Atlantic coast to prepare for Florence's expected landfall as a category 3 or 4 storm on Friday, local time.

Read Peter Hannam’s story from The Age -“‘Massive damage': monster storms to slam into east coasts of US'Massive damage': master stems to slam into East coasts of US, China China.”

Our climate plans are in pieces as killer summer shreds records

(CNN) Deadly fires have scorched swaths of the Northern Hemisphere this summer, from California to Arctic Sweden and down to Greece on the sunny Mediterranean. Drought in Europe has turned verdant land barren, while people in Japan and Korea are dying from record-breaking heat.

Climate plans in shreds as summer scorches the earth.

Climate change is here and is affecting the entire globe -- not just the polar bears or tiny islands vulnerable to rising sea levels -- scientists say. It is on the doorsteps of everyday Americans, Europeans and Asians, and the best evidence shows it will get much worse.

This summer, 119 people in Japan died in a heat wave, while 29 were killed in South Korea, officials there say. Ninety-one people in Greece died in wildfires, and ongoing fires in California have taken at least eight lives. Spain and Portugal sweltered through an exceptionally hot weekend with a heat wave that has killed three people in Spain and pushed temperatures toward record levels.

Read the CNN story by Angela Dewan - “Our climate plans are in pieces as killer summer shreds records.”

Droughts, Heat Waves and Floods: How to Tell When Climate Change Is to Blame

The Northern Hemisphere is sweating through another unusually hot summer. Japan has declared its record temperatures a natural disaster. Europe is baking under prolonged heat, with destructive wildfires in Greece and, unusually, the Arctic. And drought-fuelled wildfires are spreading in the western United States.

The dried up bed of Yarrow Reservoir near Bolton, England,
 on July 23, 2018, during a weeks-long heatwave across the U.K.

For Friederike Otto, a climate modeller at the University of Oxford, UK, the past week has been a frenzy, as journalists clamoured for her views on climate change’s role in the summer heat. “It’s been mad,” she says. The usual scientific response is that severe heatwaves will become more frequent because of global warming. But Otto and her colleagues wanted to answer a more particular question: how had climate change influenced this specific heatwave? After three days’ work with computer models, they announced on 27 July that their preliminary analysis for northern Europe suggests that climate change made the heatwave more than twice as likely to occur in many places.

Read the Scientific American story by Quirin Schiermeier -  “Droughts, Heat Waves and Floods: How to Tell When Climate Change Is to Blame.”

This Summer’s Heat Waves Could Be the Strongest Climate Signal Yet

Earth's global warming fever spiked to deadly new highs across the Northern Hemisphere this summer, and we're feeling the results—extreme heat is now blamed for hundreds of deaths, droughts threaten food supplies, wildfires have raced through neighborhoods in the western United States, Greece and as far north as the Arctic Circle.

Extreme heat killed more than 80 people in Japan
in July, just a few weeks after flooding from downpours
 was blamed for more than 200 deaths there.

At sea, record and near-record warm oceans have sent soggy masses of air surging landward, fueling extreme rainfall and flooding in Japan and the eastern U.S. In Europe, the Baltic Sea is so warm that potentially toxic blue-green algae is spreading across its surface.

There shouldn't be any doubt that some of the deadliest of this summer's disasters—including flooding in Japan and wildfires in Greece—are fueled by weather extremes linked to global warming, said Corinne Le Quéré, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia.

"We know very well that global warming is making heat waves longer, hotter and more frequent," she said.

"The evidence from having extreme events around the world is really compelling. It's very indicative that the global warming background is causing or at least contributing to these events," she said.

Read Bob Berwyn’s story from Inside Climate News - “This Summer’s Heat Waves Could Be the Strongest Climate Signal Yet.”

All-time heat records have been set all over the world during the past week

Washington: From the normally mild summers of Ireland, Scotland and Canada to the scorching Middle East, numerous locations in the Northern Hemisphere have witnessed their hottest weather ever recorded over the past week.

The sun peaks around the Washington Monument as geese
 float down the Potomac River in Washington as a hot day breaks on Sunday.

Large areas of heat pressure or heat domes scattered around the hemisphere led to the sweltering temperatures. No single record, in isolation, can be attributed to global warming. But collectively, these heat records are consistent with the kind of extremes we expect to see increase in a warming world.

Let's take a tour around the world of the recent hot-weather milestones.

Read the story by Jason Samenow from The Age - “All-time heat records have been set all over the world during the past week.”

Hurricane Irma: Is it climate change?

Hurricane Irma has been lashing Florida this morning — bringing with it 200 kilometre winds and major flooding that has cut off parts of Miami's city centre.

More than six million Florida residents have been told to leave their homes in the biggest mass evacuation in US history — and at least two million residents are without power.

Before hitting Florida, the then Category Four storm cut a devastating path across the Caribbean and Cuba — killing at least 27 people.

And behind Irma, another hurricane is now barrelling across the Atlantic — raising the question — is this Hurricane season in the Northern Hemisphere more severe than previous ones?

And how much blame can be sheeted back to climate change?

Listen to the discussion on RN Breakfast - “Hurricane Irma: Is it climate change?”

Even Fox News is admitting that climate change helped make Irma super strong

Hurricane Irma struck the Caribbean last night (Sept. 6), killing at least ten people and causing thousands of dollars in infrastructure damage on affected islands. It’s the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic, and it comes just a week after Hurricane Harvey ravaged the southeastern US. On its tail are two newly-minted hurricanes, Jose and Katia.

Catastrophic destruction. 

The waning summer months in the Northern Hemisphere are peak hurricane season because the tropical ocean waters close to the equator become warmer with the summer. The warm, humid air rises, then condenses and cools and dumps rain below. Air pressure gradients between the warm and cool air keep the cycle going.

These wind patterns can lead to tropical storms, but not all tropical storms grow into hurricanes. This is because the same gusts of wind end up disturbing the top layer of warm water too much, and bring up colder waters from below. The cold water starves the system for energy, and the storm fizzles out.

Read the Quartz story by Katherine Ellen Foley - “Even Fox News is admitting that climate change helped make Irma super strong.”

Climate change induced heat stress will limit Olympic venues

Professor Alistair Woodward from
the University of Auckland - he says
it will soon be too hot in most places
to stage the Summer Olympics.

Heat stress due to climate change will limit where and when the summer Olympics can be held in the future, according to new research from the University of Auckland.

The study, published in the British medical journal, The Lancet this week, looked at the impact of increased temperatures on Northern Hemisphere countries’ ability to stage the iconic Summer Olympics’ marathon.

“High-visibility international athletic events such as the Summer Olympics represent just a small fraction of heavy exertion outdoors,” says co-author, Professor Alistair Woodward head of the University’s department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

“But increasing restrictions on when, where, and how the Games can be held owing to extreme heat are a sign of a much bigger problem.

“If the world’s most elite athletes need to be protected from climate change, what about the rest of us?” he says.

By 2085 the study finds almost 90 percent of large cities in the Northern Hemisphere will be too hot and humid during the summer months to safely run the marathon.

Read the University of Auckland story - “When will it be too hot to hold the Summer Olympics?”

It's abundantly clear: global warming is going into overdrive

Global warming into overdrive.

Preliminary February and early March temperatures are in, and it’s now abundantly clear: warming is going into overdrive.

As of 3 March, it appears that average temperatures across the northern hemisphere breached 2°C above pre-industrial levels for the first time in recorded history, and probably the first time since human civilisation began thousands of years ago.

The 2°C mark has long been held (somewhat arbitrarily) as the point above which climate change may begin to become “dangerous” to humanity. It has now arrived – though very briefly and only in the northern hemisphere – much more quickly than anticipated. This is a milestone moment for our species. Climate change deserves our greatest possible attention.

Read the New Scientist story - “Northern hemisphere temperature breaches a terrifying milestone.”

Goulburn Valley bushfire concerns worsened by climate change

Today’s Shepparton News carried a story by Emily Woods headed “Fiery Future” that told of increasing bushfire risk arising from climate change and the discussed the stresses that puts upon Goulburn Valley-based fire-fighters.

B

ushfire seasons are getting longer and in the future local fire-fighters will be taken away from their own communities to battle blazes elsewhere, a Climate Council report has revealed.

The report from the Climate Council
about "The Burning Issue".

Events this week have seen the predicted trends already starting to take shape.

Yesterday, several Shepparton firefighters went to Somerton to battle a large rubbish fire.

They stayed overnight to assist crews to stop the blaze from spreading the neighbouring properties.

In the past 12 months crews from the Goulburn Valley have travelled as far as Canada, Perth and to neighbouring states to assist in fighting fires, United Firefighters Union Shepparton shop steward Leigh Allen said.

“The fire seasons are going to be longer and resources are going to be strained again Australia and the Northern Hemisphere.”

Mr Allen said, “Resources are going to be tied up more in the Northern Hemisphere, but we will also see members going away from their family for longer, as there is going to be more deployments interstate.”

“We’re already shaping up to be one of the hottest seasons on record, it’s going to affect everyone across the board”.

"The Burning Issue: Climate Change and the Australia BushfireThreat" report, released on Thursday, revealed the length of the season had increased by about 19 per cent globally (between 1978 and 2013).

“Already, record-breaking temperatures in October have driven an early start to the bushfire season and large areas of south-east and south-west Australia are facing above-average bushfire potential this summer,” Climate Council Professor Lesley Hughes said.

Country Fire Authority District 22 operations manager Tony Owen said the report reflected what was already happening in the region.

“We’re being called away to fires further away, earlier in the season,” Mr Owen said.

Climate Council chief executive, 
Amanda McKenzie, who is
critical of the Federal Government's
lack of climate change action..

We’re seeing the trend in the states around us, in Sydney, Adelaide, they’re having earlier fire seasons as well.

“It’s creating a bigger burden on our CFA volunteers, the season is being drawn out and there’s loads more pressure on those fine men and women.”

Mr Owen said this season so far had been changes in the way the land responded as the temperatures rose.

“In many areas of our district the curing of the land, the drying process, is not following the traditional start in the west and moving eastwards; it’s becoming more patchy , which is quite bizarre.”

Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie said the climate was on steroids and criticized the Federal Government’s climate change action.

“We must join the rest of the world in meaningful action to bring climate change under control, Ms McKenzie said.

We have destabilized 'the great ice sheet' and now there's more

The great ice sheet of West Antarctica may have been irreversibly destabilized by humans, setting in motion a more than 10 feet of sea level rise.

We realized in 2014 and now 2015 could be the year of the double whammy — when we learned the same about one gigantic glacier of East Antarctica, which could set in motion roughly the same amount all over again.

The Washington Post says, “Northern Hemisphere residents and Americans in particular should take note — when the bottom of the world loses vast amounts of ice, those of us living closer to its top get more sea level rise than the rest of the planet, thanks to the law of gravity.”

The Post’s story - “The melting of Antarctica was already really bad. It just got worse.” – discusses just how badly we are messing up the planet.