“From Somalia to South Sudan, torrential rains have devastated crops and made roads impassable, sending the cost of food soaring…
“The rains have drowned or destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of cropland in Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya. They have flooded roads, making it difficult to transport surviving crops, and forced many farmers to abandon their homes and fields.
“These countries were already reeling from extended periods of drought…”
“Floods across the island of Madagascar has killed at least 12 people this week, with 18 missing, after unseasonably heavy rain, the national disaster office said on Thursday.
“Parts of Africa have experienced heavy rain in recent months because the Indian Ocean is warmer than usual, partly as result of a cyclical weather phenomenon and partly because oceans are warming everywhere.”
https://africa.cgtn.com/2020/01/23/madagascar-floods-kill-at-least-12-people-with-more-missing/
“Record high oceanic temperatures triggered an unprecedented global-scale coral bleaching event from 2014 to 2017, which was the longest-lasting and most severe.
“More than 75% of the world’s tropical reefs – the most diverse ecosystems in the world – were exposed to bleaching-level heat stress and many corals perished.”
“Flooding has [again] occurred in parts of Jakarta [Indonesia] on as a result of heavy rain in the early hours of Friday morning, according to data from the Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency.
“The BPBD recorded 54 inundated areas across the capital, of which 28 are located in North Jakarta.”
“The devastating, unthinkable summer continues [in Australia], and the end is not yet in sight.
“And whether Australians are contemplating the big questions – such as how to rebuild, if the devastated wildlife and scarred land can ever recover, whether this crisis will finally push the government to action on the climate crisis – or are just waking each day to check the weather forecast, the air quality index, the “fires near me” app, the questions we are asking are the same: what next? What now? What more?”
“This recent spike in temperature is estimated to have killed one-tenth of the local population of flying foxes and at least 50% have been infant animals, limiting the ability for the population to recover in the region.
“Though the Yarra Park region was not heavily affected by the recent bushfires, the flying foxes’ other habitats along the east coast have been.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-51191849
“”Copper production decreased by 13% to 158,800 tonnes…
“”Chile´s central zone continues to face unprecedented climate conditions, with 2019 being one of the driest years on record and the driest since the start of the current decade-long drought.””
https://www.kitco.com/news/2020-01-23/De-Beers-diamond-production-drops-15.html
“Mendoza [Argentina] is going through one of its hottest summers on record and the heat wave has been a constant this week .
“But, in addition, according to the Meteorological Service, the maximums above 35 ° C will also continue today and throughout the weekend.”
“The world is heating up… 19 of the past 21 years have been the hottest on record.
“This dramatic increase in temperature and other more subtle climate changes have been pronounced in the California desert, where temperatures have increased almost four degrees in the past 100 years. As heat rises and weather patterns change, our storied California desert bird populations have fallen.”
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/479622-birds-in-californias-desert-are-dying
“The western monarch butterfly population wintering along California’s coast remains critically low for the second year in a row, a count by an environmental group released Thursday showed…
“Along with farming, climate change is one of the main drivers of the monarch’s threatened extinction.”
https://nypost.com/2020/01/23/californias-monarch-butterflies-remain-critically-low-for-second-year/
“The western United States has experienced such intense droughts over the past decade that technical descriptions are becoming inadequate. In many places, conditions are rocketing past “severe,” through “extreme,” all the way to “exceptional drought.”
…””I was really stunned at how big an effect we found with just a 2-degree warming,” said Chris Funk, director of the university’s Climate Hazards Center, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist and one of the study’s coauthors.”
https://phys.org/news/2020-01-climate-hazard-scientists-corners-drought.html
“[Storm Gloria in Spain] has been labelled as ‘historic’ by Manola Brunet, president of the Climatology Commission of the World Meteorological Origanisation (WMO)…
“Brunet described Storm Gloria as an ‘extreme weather phenomenon’ and ‘historic’ due to its impact and its link to climate change.”
“The price of electricity is around half the level that it was at the same time last year in Sweden, and the mild yet windy winter is a big factor behind the drop…
“…the higher than usual temperatures for the season have helped reduce electricity use, which in turn lowers prices.”
https://www.thelocal.se/20200124/why-electricity-prices-are-at-a-record-low-in-sweden-right-now
“An appeals court in Norway on Thursday upheld a ruling that acquitted the government against charges from Nature and Youth and Greenpeace Nordic that drilling for oil and gas in Arctic waters would violate the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Norwegian constitution…
“It is understood the ten drilling licences have been permitted in [Norway’s] Arctic region.”
“Not only does a warming Arctic affect the presence of sea ice, it also alters the distribution of the little auk’s prey.
“Little auks feed on large zooplankton, which remain at depth in clearer waters. As the Arctic warms, the smallest (and lower calorie) Atlantic species of zooplankton is extending northward, threatening the range of the two larger (and higher calorie) Arctic species that little auks prefer… With sea ice disappearing, the fate of little auk survival may be at risk.”
https://glacierhub.org/2020/01/23/seabirds-find-new-ways-to-forage-in-a-changing-arctic/
“‘This is the greatest dissolve occasion we know to have happened on the George VI ice rack [Antarctica],’ she said.
“‘What’s stressing is if George VI resembles this, other ice retires on the promontory likely have a lot of meltwater as well,’ Banwell said. ‘What’s more, those ice racks are less steady.’”
“Intense floods and storms around the world could double in frequency within 13 years, as climate breakdown and socioeconomic factors combine, according to a new study…
“Broadly, the researchers… see governments around the world as critically unprepared.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/24/climate-crisis-study-flood-storm-study
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