“Juneau, Alaska, smashed its all-time 24-hour rainfall record Tuesday and Wednesday, triggering destructive flooding and mudslides from an atmospheric river.
“Juneau picked up 5.08 inches of rain in 24 hours ending 3 a.m. Wednesday, topping the previous record for any 24-hour period in Alaska’s capital city, 4.66 inches on Oct. 9-10, 1946… “Two other towns, Pelican (9.75 inches) and Skagway (5.37 inches), also set new all-time calendar-day rainfall records…”
https://weather.com/news/news/2020-12-02-juneau-alaska-all-time-rain-record
““The bottom line is, it’s getting hotter and wetter here in Philly,” says Rachel Valletta, an environmental scientist at the Franklin Institute.
“…since 1895, the average temperature in Pennsylvania has increased by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit, and in 13 of the past 15 years, the average annual temperature has exceeded that of the annual average across the entire 20th century — a strong sign that temperatures in recent years have been historically hot and not just a fluctuation.”
https://www.phillymag.com/news/2020/12/03/philly-weather-severe-climate-change-fall/
“Thanks mostly to a combination of human-caused climate change and urbanization, winters in Washington are warming hastily and taking on an entirely new character.
“Our winter climate is on a southbound journey, with nothing in the way. Over the past five decades, the region has seen winter average temperatures increase between three and five degrees F.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/12/03/washington-warming-winters-snow/
“Fire crews battle to tame Southern California wildfire after thousands flee:
“Firefighters battled to tame a wildfire on hillsides southeast of Los Angeles late on Thursday, some 24 hours after it broke out in a wooded canyon, apparently triggered by a faulty domestic generator.”
“Five of the six largest fires in California history and three of the four largest in Colorado history all burned this year. This dramatic increase in the acres burned by immense wildfires is being driven by fires which are burning hotter and more intensely than they used to.
“In fact, according to a new study, there’s been an eight-fold increase since the mid-1980s in annual area burned by high-severity wildfires [in the US]…”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wildfires-western-united-states-8-times-more-area/
“Storms, coronavirus and drought spread hunger to millions in Central America:
“In Guatemala, the problem is particularly severe. Even before the storms hit, some 3.7 million people – or more than a fifth of the population – were already suffering high levels of acute food insecurity…”
“The past decade has been the warmest in recorded history. Governments around the world have been reluctant to implement policies to effectively slow climate change, preferring to view its impacts as part of an abstract, distant future.
“But, for communities such as the Wayuu [indigenous people. Colombia], the consequences of climate change have already arrived — and their children are bearing the cost.”
“Namibia is putting 170 live elephants up for sale to curb rising tusker populations under pressure from drought and territorial conflict with humans.
“An advertisement for the sale of 170 “high value” elephants was carried on Wednesday by a state-owned daily newspaper, New Era.”
https://www.thejournal.ie/namibia-elephants-on-sale-5287523-Dec2020/
“Wildlife conservationists braved crocodile infested waters to rescue a critically endangered Nubian giraffe trapped on a flooding island in Kenya.
“The giraffe, named Asiwa, was one of eight stranded due to days on intense rain that cut off access to the mainland, leaving the herd imprisoned on Longicharo Island.”
“At least four people have been killed by lightning strikes in Mozambique’s western province of Tete, which shares a border with neighbouring Malawi.
“Meanwhile, a rainstorm accompanied by strong winds, has left a trail of destruction in southern Mozambique.”
“In the drought-hit south of Madagascar, people are forced to fill their bellies with white clay mixed with tamarind to cope with famine.
“More than a year of no rain is slowing leading locals to the brink of famine. The staple food like cactus fruit cannot be produced because of the drought.”
“Cyclone Amphan, which battered West Bengal and parts of Bangladesh, could be the costliest tropical cyclone to be recorded in the North Indian Ocean, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) provisional report on the State of Global Climate.
“Released on Wednesday, the report pegged economic losses caused by the super cyclone at a staggering $14 billion.”
https://in.news.yahoo.com/economic-losses-sparked-cyclone-amphan-044932601.html
“River deep, tensions high: China assures India over Tibet dam plans amid spectre of drought. Plans to build hydropower plant on Yarlung Tsangpo River, which flows from Tibet to India, are at early stage and impact will be assessed, embassy says
“India has said it may build its own plant downstream to mitigate the effects, while the neighbours’ border row shows little sign of easing.”
“China has pledged to boost its ability to modify the weather with artificial rain and snow to gain more control on its agriculture, natural disasters and ecosystems.
“The ambitious plan would cover over 6million square kilometres of land (2.3million square miles) by 2025 with an extended weather programme, according to the country’s cabinet on Wednesday.”
“Food shortages loom after floods destroy central Vietnam Fields…
“”We don’t know what to plant to make a living,” said Rao, a 46-year-old resident of Huong Son Commune in Quang Tri’s Huong Hoa District. Two wet bags of grains they have are all that’s left for the next six months, he said…”
“Flash floods have claimed at least nine lives in southern Thailand and affected half a million people, officials said Thursday as the region braced for even more rain.
“The deaths all came in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, where a state of emergency has been declared. The youngest victim was just five years old.”
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20201203-floods-kill-nine-in-southern-thailand
“Floods swamped several villages in Banjarsari Sub-district, Lebak District, Banten Province [Java, Indonesia], as the Cimoyan River overflowed its banks, compelling panic-stricken residents to flee to higher ground.
“”We have not been able to confirm the number of refugees, as they are still evacuating residents trapped in floods,” Sumardi, head of the Regional Disaster Mitigation Office of Banten Province, stated here on Thursday.”
https://en.antaranews.com/news/162984/hundreds-flee-to-higher-ground-after-floods-submerge-lebak
“The enormous economic and health crisis brought on by the pandemic may have overshadowed the tragedy of last season’s bushfires but the recent spate of hot weather is a stark reminder of the potential dangers Australia faces once again this summer.
“Spring was a scorcher. Based on minimum and mean temperatures, it has been the hottest seasonal lead-up to summer on record…”
“Fewer than 300 critically endangered swift parrots could remain in Australia, a new study has revealed, as a court challenge against logging in their Tasmanian habitat was heard in the federal court…
““Extinction is coming rapidly for the swift parrot,” said researcher Dejan Stojanovic on Wednesday.”
“The outlook for five Australian world heritage sites including the Great Barrier Reef, the Blue Mountains and the Gondwana rainforests, has deteriorated, according to a global report that finds climate change is now the number one threat to the planet’s natural world heritage…
“The reef suffered its third mass coral bleaching in five years during the 2019-20 summer.”
“Split’s streets [Croatia] are mostly underwater as torrential rain flooded the city on Thursday morning – and it doesn’t look like there is an end in sight.
“The official 24-hour precipitation record in Split is 228.5 mm [around nine inches], which happened in September 1948. There is a possibility that today this record will be broken.”
https://www.total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/48653-split-streets
“…the climate crisis—is… unsparingly reflected on the Eiger’s north wall [Switzerland].
“A diminishing snowpack and unprecedented ice melt mean the North Face’s climbing routes are no longer what they once were. Add to this the hazards of more avalanches, crumbling buttresses, and explosive rockfalls.”
https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/adventure/2020/12/the-swiss-mountain-thats-changing-forever
“Several [Swedish] weather records were broken in the month of November. Regions in southern and central Sweden measured the hottest temperatures.
“What’s unique is the amount of temperature records that were broken,” Lisa Frost, meteorologist at Sweden’s national weather agency SMHI, told the TT newswire.”
https://www.thelocal.se/20201203/swedens-unusually-mild-autumn-sets-spate-of-november-records
“Kiev this year experienced its warmest autumn in nearly 140 years, Ukraine’s central geophysical observatory said on Wednesday.
“Average temperatures reached 11.6 degrees Celsius [52.9F], which is 3.6 degrees Celsius [4.5] above the norm, the observatory said in a statement.”
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/752797-kiev-records-warmest-autumn-in-140-years
“The great global energy shift could push Moscow towards plastics production on Arctic tundra.
“Russia’s powerful petroleum industry feels a mounting pressure from alternative energy sources, and strong voices now say the country’s vast natural gas resources in the Arctic should be used in petrochemical production.”
“The Trump administration has formally announced the go-ahead for the fiercely opposed sale of controversial gas and oil drilling licences in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
“The refuge is a pristine wilderness and home to polar bears, caribou and many other wildlife species.”
“Greenland’s massive ice sheet will continue shrinking even if snowfall rates return to the higher levels of decades ago, when the ice sheet was stable, a new study shows.
“Rates of ice loss climbed dramatically in the early 2000s before settling at a higher, sustained state of decline. For each kilometer that Greenland’s glaciers retreat, their rate of ice loss speeds up by 4 to 5 percent—a bleak trend that will accelerate sea-level rise.”
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/the-glaciers-of-the-greenland-ice-sheet-are-running-away/
“Climate researchers discovered that changes in Northern Hemisphere sea levels contribute to the shrinking of the Antarctic ice sheet…
““The implication of this study is that under our warming world, we have now two remaining ice sheets in Greenland and in the Southern Hemisphere,” Han said. “Once an ice sheet in one hemisphere starts to go, then the ice sheet in the other hemisphere is also in danger.””
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/12/4/sea-level-ice-sheet-research/
“New research found microplastics in every sample taken from a vast fjord system in remote Chilean Patagonia, showing the immense global scale of marine plastic pollution.
“Cristóbal Castillo and his research team from the Universidad de Concepción published their findings last month in the Marine Pollution Bulletin.”
https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2020/12/02/microplastics-patagonian-fjord-system/
“Heatwaves are killing a record number of people. Exposure to extreme heat is getting worse as a result of climate change…
“Last year, people aged over 65 endured a combined extra 2.9bn days of extreme heat compared with a 1986-2005 baseline (see chart). This beats the previous record, set in 2016, by 160m days.
“India and China were among the worst affected, thanks to large populations and already hot regions.”
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/12/03/heatwaves-are-killing-a-record-number-of-people
You can read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here. I’ll be back over the weekend with an ‘Economic’ thread.
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