Heatwave in Pakistan's Karachi during Ramadan kills dozens

Dozens of people have died in Pakistan, where a severe heatwave has coincided with the start of Ramadan.

A volunteer sprays water on people to keep them cool in Karachi.

The southern city of Karachi, with a population of 15 million, is sweltering in temperatures hitting 44 degrees Celsius.

Local media reports say that up to 100 people have died of heatstroke since the weekend.

Heatstroke occurs when the body overheats in prolonged exposure to high temperatures. The condition leads to organ and muscle failure and is exacerbated by dehydration.

Read Siobhan Heanue’s story from ABC News - “Heatwave in Pakistan's Karachi during Ramadan kills dozens.”

Unprecedented' marine heatwave triggered huge carbon-dioxide release

A severe heatwave off north-western Western Australia hammered the world's largest region of seagrass, triggering the release of as much as nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide, a paper by international researchers has found.

Shark Bay, one of the world's largest intact seagrass regions
was hammered in a marine heatwave that lasted two months
 in the summer of 2010-11.

Two months of temperatures 2-4 degrees above average in the summer of 2010-11 resulted in the loss of about 1000 square-kilometres of seagrass in Shark Bay by 2014, or about a fifth of its extent, according to the paper which was published on Tuesday in Nature Climate Change.

Read Peter Hannam’s story from The Age - “‘Unprecedented' marine heatwave triggered huge carbon-dioxide release.”

Heatwave set to scorch Victoria

Hot days ahead for northern Victoria.

A severe heatwave is set to scorch much of the state with no relief in sight until the middle of the month.

Northern Victoria will swelter through the week with temperatures tipped to reach almost 40 degrees in some areas.

Southern parts of the state are expected to escape the blistering heatwave, but temperatures will hover around the 30-degree mark for most of the week.

Read the Melbourne Age story - “Melbourne weather: heatwave set to scorch Victoria.”

(What do we do? Well, we can’t stop climate change now, it’s too late as any opportunity we had for mitigation is past and now we need to consider and apply any adaptation ideas we feel might work – Robert McLean.)