“Firefighters continue to search for people feared missing after severe flooding in the Sicilian capital Palermo on Wednesday night.
“Rescue teams searched overnight and into Thursday morning for people feared to have drowned during the flash floods, caused by what the mayor said was the most violent rainstorm since “at least 1790”.
“Over one metre of rain fell in under two hours, leaving cars submerged in parts of the city centre.”
“Ethiopia is allowing the reservoir of a huge dam built on the River Nile to fill up, a development that is likely to anger Egypt, which says the hydroelectric plant, the largest in Africa, poses it an “existential threat”…
“In the past, Egypt hinted that it might resort to force if the dam went ahead, prompting Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, to say: “No force can stop Ethiopia from building a dam. If there is need to go to war, we could get millions readied.””
https://www.ft.com/content/cee866ea-eef8-4a9b-9a28-396d3cb27a44
“The economy of Zambia, Africa’s second-biggest copper producer, is on track to shrink by five percent due to a dual shock of the coronavirus pandemic and a severe drought, the IMF said Wednesday.
“The International Monetary Fund made the projection following two weeks of discussions with Zambian authorities.”
“Drought has hit Zimbabwe with a vengeance.
“Water supply to several neighbourhoods is severely limited, while people in the countryside scramble for resources. Meanwhile, in a Harare suburb, residents have resorted to unsafe water for survival.”
“The UK warned the UN Security Council today 15th July that the FSO SAFER oil tanker, which has 1.14 million barrels of crude oil on board, poses a devastating threat to the environment.
“Its poor condition means it is now close to leaking millions of gallons of oil into the Red Sea.”
“With more than 7,000, Pakistan has more glaciers than anywhere except the polar regions.
“But climate change is “eating away Himalayan glaciers at a dramatic rate”, a study published last year in the journal Science Advances noted.”
“Rain and drainage water entered into state-run Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad [India] on Wednesday, turning the oldest and one of the biggest healthcare facilities in Telangana into a cesspool.
“It was a flood-like situation in the over a century old hospital with the employees struggling to prevent the water from entering the building.”
https://indianewengland.com/2020/07/hyderabads-historic-osmania-hospital-flooded/
“…park authorities and the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) have been engaged in rescue missions for the animals of Kaziranga Reserve trapped by the rising waters.”
Video:
https://in.news.yahoo.com/heartbreaking-videos-tigers-rhinos-trying-205352037.html
“Flooding in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar and Nepal has killed scores of people, destroyed homes and structures, drowned entire villages, and forced many to crouch on rooftops hoping for rescue…
“…in recent years, the monsoon season has increasingly brought cyclones and devastating floods, causing the internal displacement of millions of people in low-lying areas…”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/world/asia/monsoon-asia-bangladesh-india.html
“As the monsoon gets underway across Indochina, farmers and fishermen are praying for rain after a lengthy drought — aggravated by climate change and dam construction.
“This year the Mekong River has seen its lowest levels since record keeping began 60 years ago.”
https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/praying-rain-mekong-monsoon-season-begins
“The Pran Buri reservoir [Thailand], the provinces biggest supplier for vast farming areas and communities, currently has about 100 million cubic metres of water left or about 25%.
“Many districts in the province are already being affected by a water shortage. Not enough has filled the reservoir.”
https://reliefweb.int/report/thailand/drought-leaves-province-dangerously-low-water
“Soldiers erected sandbag flood barriers in a city near China’s largest freshwater lake after the heaviest rainfall in nearly six decades drenched the swollen Yangtze River basin.
“The vast Yangtze drainage area has been lashed by torrential rains since last month, leaving 141 people dead or missing and forcing the evacuation of millions more across several provinces.”
https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/07/16/20/china-rushes-to-contain-floods-after-record-rainfall
“Heavy rains have flooded “hundreds of wells” at the Jiangsu oilfield in eastern China’s Jiangsu province…
“At the Gaoji block, 165 wells are submerged in water in an area covering 20 square kilometres of low-lying terrain that is prone to flooding.”
“More than 500 domestic tourists have been stranded in Uvs Province in western Mongolia after bridges and roads were damaged by massive flooding caused by heavy rains from Monday to Wednesday, the provincial government said Thursday…
“…major rivers of the province, including Turgen and Kharkhiraa, have exceeded the warning levels by 10-43 centimeters due to heavy downpour.”
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-07/16/c_139217219.htm
“Agribusiness entities that deforested vast swaths of the Cerrado biome in Brazil to grow corn are now suffering a drop in production because of climate changes brought about by their own actions.
“That’s the finding of a new study that shows the loss of native vegetation has led to more warm nights and changes in rainfall patterns…”
“It’s easy to miss a flood in disguise. But the slow-motion rising of water, scattered in dozens of ponds and lakes, has become so destructive that Washington County has declared an emergency…
“The rainfall of last year capped the wettest decade ever recorded in central Washington County. Last year was the wettest single year ever… there are three or four “extreme events” annually in Minnesota…
““We are talking about eight inches of rain in 10 hours,” he said. “This is climate change.””
https://www.twincities.com/2020/07/15/washington-county-hit-with-flooding-declares-emergency/
“‘Nuisance’ high-tide flooding has been ‘extraordinary’ along the US coasts since 2000 and a new reports projects it will only become worse.
“The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warns rising sea levels will bring tides from 1.75 to two feet above the daily average, which will spill over into residential areas.”
“The record-breaking heatwave in the Siberian Arctic was made at least 600 times more likely by human-caused climate change, according to a study.
“Between January and June, temperatures in the far north of Russia were more than 5C above average, causing permafrost to melt, buildings to collapse, and sparking an unusually early and intense start to the forest fires season. On 20 June, a monitoring station in Verkhoyansk registered a record high of 38C.”
“Arctic species such as bowhead whales, belugas, walrus, bearded seals and ribbon seals are seasonally present in and travel through the waters around St. Lawrence Island and the Bering Strait.
“The team found that the increasing periods of open, ice-free water in the Arctic correlate with an increase of non-biological ambient noises, both from surface waves driven by wind and an increase in vessel traffic.”
https://www.oceanographicmagazine.com/news/bering-strait-sea-ice-ocean-noise/
“Antarctica’s remaining wilderness areas need urgent protection from increasing human activity.
“Even passing human disturbance can impact the biodiversity and wilderness value of sites. For example, sensitive vegetation and soil communities can take years to recover from trampling.”
You can read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here and visit my Patreon page here.
