Intense frequent and long heatwaves caused by human activity

It’s boiling outside. You can’t remember the last time it was this hot. It feels like the sun is sucking every morsel of water out of your body. Hopes of a short respite in a delicious ice cream fade fast when you realize how quickly it will melt. 

Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick.

You’re in the middle of a heatwave. 

Heatwaves, measured as prolonged periods of excessive heat, are a complex type of extreme temperature event. These events occur naturally (albeit rarely) as part of our climate, and are driven by a delicate balance of the right weather patterns, local soil moisture conditions, and larger-scale climate variability patterns.

Unfortunately, they’ve increased in their intensity, frequency and duration over many regions of the globe since at least the middle of the 20th Century.

Read the story taken from the blog “SarahinScience” by climate scientist Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick - “Intense frequent and long heatwaves caused by human activity.”

(Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick is from the University of New South Wales and will be interviewed soon on the podcast “Climate Conversations” - Robert McLean)

The Pentagon Warned That Climate Change Threatens Half of America's Military Installations

Nearly 50% of U.S. military installations across the globe face increased risk of a slew of climate change-related threats including extreme temperature, flooding and drought, according to a Pentagon report.

The report, which comes in response to a request from Congress to study the issue, comes as the Trump Administration has sought to discredit the science of climate change including by removing the issue from its National Security Strategy last year.

But the report, which relied on a survey of military officials located at bases across the globe, outlines in detail the specific threats facing a variety of outposts as well as military installations that harmed by past extreme weather events linked to climate change. Sites along the West, East and Gulf coasts all face flooding from storm surge. Drought threatens facilities across the country with a particularly high concentration in California and parts of the prairie states. Wildfires pose threats across the Mountain West.

Read the Time story by Justin Worland - “The Pentagon Warned That Climate Change Threatens Half of America's Military Installations.”