climate change – Page 50 – Desdemona Despair

Map showing land surface temperature across most of India, 29 April 2022. In Spring 2022, India faced a prolonged heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 42°C in numerous cities across the country. This came just weeks after India recorded its hottest March since the country’s meteorological department began its records over 120 years ago. This image, produced using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission, shows the land surface temperature across most of the nation. According to the India Meteorological Department, maximum air temperatures reached 43-46°C over most parts of Rajasthan, Vidarbha, Madhya Pradesh and East Uttar Pradesh; in many parts over Gujarat, interior Odisha; and in some parts of Madhya Maharashtra on 28 April 2022. Graphic: ESA

May 23, 2022

A hot, deadly summer is coming in 2022 with frequent blackouts – “We really expect these problems to get worse in the next five years”

By Dan Murtaugh, Rajesh Kumar Singh, and Naureen S. Malik 22 May 2022 (Bloomberg) – Global power grids are about to face their biggest test in decades with electricity generation strangled in the world’s largest economies. War, drought, shortages, historically low inventories, and a pandemic backlash: energy markets across the planet have been put through […]

Global map showing the highest marine heatwave (MHW) category experienced at each pixel in 2021 (reference period 1982–2011). Light grey indicates that no MHW occurred in a pixel over the entire year. (b) Stacked bar plot showing the percentage of the surface of the ocean experiencing an MHW on any given day of the year. (c) Stacked bar plot showing the cumulative percentage of the surface of the ocean that experienced an MHW over the year. Note: These values are based on when in the year a pixel first experienced its highest MHW category, so no pixel is counted twice. Horizontal lines in this figure show the final percentages for each category of MHW. (d) Stacked bar plot showing the cumulative number of MHW days averaged over the surface of the ocean. Note: This average is calculated by dividing the cumulative sum of MHW days per pixel weighted by the surface area of those pixels. Data: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (NOAA OISST). Graphic: Robert Schlegel

May 22, 2022

WMO: Four key climate change indicators broke records in 2021 – Past seven years have been the warmest seven years on record – “A dismal litany of humanity’s failure to tackle climate disruption”

GENEVA, 18 May 2022 (WMO) – Four key climate change indicators – greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification – set new records in 2021. This is yet another clear sign that human activities are causing planetary scale changes on land, in the ocean, and in the atmosphere, with harmful and […]

A worker rests on sacks of processed wheat at a wholesale grain market in New Delhi, India, 17 May 2022. Photo: Amarjeet Kumar Singh / ANADOLU AGENCY / GETTY

May 22, 2022

India hit with deadly flooding and heat waves at the same time – Wheat prices exceed record high – “This is a real climate emergency”

By Arshad R. Zargar 18 May 2022 NEW DELHI (CBS News) – While a huge swathe of India bakes under record-breaking heat, the vast country’s northeast is being devastated by floods. Heavy rains started lashing the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh last week, triggering floods and mudslides that have washed away houses, fields of […]

Surface temperature map for Europe and North Africa on 20 May 2022. Morocco observed its hottest day in May on 20 May 2022, recording a temperature of 45.7°C (114°F). With some areas reaching a scorching 44ºC in Spain on 21 May 2022, this unprecedented heatwave could make May the hottest month of the century. Graphic: Scott Duncan

May 22, 2022

Spain endures record heatwave as May 2022 to become hottest month of the century – Morocco suffers hottest day in May on record

22 May 2022 (Euronews) – Spain is feeling the heat after temperatures soared this weekend, reaching up to 15 degrees above average for the season. With some areas reaching a scorching 44ºC on Saturday, this unprecedented heatwave could make May the hottest month of the century. At least 13 regions were on alert due to […]

A farmer pours water on himself while working at a wheat farm in the Ludhiana district of Punjab, India, on Sunday, 1 May 2022. Photo: T. Narayan / Bloomberg / Getty Images

May 15, 2022

India bans wheat exports as heat wave hurts crop and domestic prices soar – “The Indian ban will lift global wheat prices”

By Rajendra Jadhav, Mayank Bhardwaj, and Nigam Prusty 15 May 2022 MUMBAI (Reuters) – India banned wheat exports on Saturday days after saying it was targeting record shipments this year, as a scorching heat wave curtailed output and domestic prices hit a record high. The government said it would still allow exports backed by already […]

Earth energy imbalance, global net flux, 2001-2021. The 12-month EEI, Mar 2021-Feb 2022, set another record. The annual Earth’s Energy Imbalance was +1.52 W/m2, the energy equivalent to 1 million Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs every day. Data: NASA CERES. Graphic: Leon Simons

May 8, 2022

New NASA data show Earth heating at unprecedented rate – “Like 800,000 nuclear power plants of 1 GW capacity heating Earth 24/7, 365 days a year”

By Leon Simons 5 May 2022 (Twitter) – NASA data shows our Earth is heating at unprecedented speed: 1.64 W/m2. CERES radiative flux data for 2021 has come available. The annual Earth’s Energy Imbalance was +1.52 W/m2, the energy equivalent to 1 million Hiroshima sized atomic bombs every day. Another 12-month EEI record (from Mar […]

Global daily atmospheric CO2, 2012-2022. The figure shows daily averaged CO2 from four GML Atmospheric Baseline observatories; Barrow, Alaska (in blue), Mauna Loa, Hawaii (in red), American Samoa (in green), and South Pole, Antarctica (in yellow). The thick black lines represent the average of the smoothed seasonal curves and the smoothed, de-seasonalized curves for each of the records. These lines are a very good estimate of the global average levels of CO2. Data for 2022 are through 7 May 2022. Graphic: NOAA

May 8, 2022

Earth’s atmospheric CO2 hits highest recorded level in human history – Unprecedented level comes as greenhouse gas emissions continue around the world

By Ethan Freedman 6 May 2022 NEW YORK (The Independent) – Monthly average carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have reached above 420 parts per million (ppm) for the first time on record. The new data, from Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory, were released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Atmospheric CO2, driven higher in large part […]

Maximum temperatures at various locations in India, 27 April 2022. Graphic: India Meteorological Department / India.com News

May 8, 2022

Heatwave breaks records in India and it’s not even summer yet – “Hottest summer ever” for at least five states

By Analiza Pathak 28 April 2022 NEW DELHI (India.com News) – Summer came early this year and severe heatwave has gripped most parts of India this time with record temperatures being reported in March itself. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has announced heat wave warning for at least five states as India witnesses its “hottest […]

SDG Indicator 16.1.1 Detected victims of intentional homicide, by sex (women) vs. SDG Indicator 1.5.1 Number of people affected by disaster. Research shows that violence against women and girls increases in the aftermath of disasters. At the extreme end of the scale, this takes the form of intentional homicides. Data: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs analysis based on Global Sustainable Development Goal Indicators Database (UN DESA, 2021). Graphic: UNDRR

May 8, 2022

Humanity entering “spiral of self-destruction”, UN warns – “By deliberately ignoring risk and failing to integrate it in decision making, the world is effectively bankrolling its own destruction”

26 April 2022 (France 24) – Humanity is suffering from a “broken perception of risk”, spurring us into activities and behaviours that cause climate change and a surging number of disasters around the globe, the UN warned Tuesday. In a fresh report, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, or UNDRR, found that between 350 and […]

Russia tree cover loss, 2001-2021. The rate of loss in in boreal forests reached unprecedented levels in 2021, increasing by 29 percent over 2020. An unprecedented fire season in Russia drove much of this increase. Russia experienced the worst fire season since record-keeping began in 2001, with more than 6.5 million hectares of tree cover loss in 2021. While fires are a natural part of boreal forest ecosystems, larger, more intense fires are worrying. Hotter, drier weather related to climate change has led to fire-prone conditions, drier peatlands and melted permafrost. Siberia’s vast peatland area — the largest in the world — stores massive amounts of carbon, which is released into the atmosphere when peat dries up. Melting permafrost also releases stored carbon and methane. These conditions may represent a new normal, impacting people living in Siberia and creating a feedback loop in which increasing fires and carbon emissions reinforce each other and lead to worsening conditions. Graphic: WRI

May 8, 2022

Vast forest losses in 2021 imperil global climate targets, report says – “We’re seeing fires burning more frequently, more intensively and more broadly than they ever would under normal conditions”

By Jake Spring 28 April 2022 SAO PAULO, April 28 (Reuters) – The world lost an area of forest the size of the U.S. state of Wyoming last year, as wildfires in Russia set all-time records and Brazilian deforestation of the Amazon remains high, a global forest monitoring project report said on Thursday. Global Forest Watch, which […]