[✔️] July 19, 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Richard Pauli Richard at CredoandScreed.com
Tue Jul 19 09:23:13 EDT 2022 

/*July 19, 2022*/

/[  DW 9 min video report  - "an especially difficult summer"  - over 
40°C over 100°F ] /
*Europe's heatwave spreads north as wildfires rage in the south | DW News*
Jul 18, 2022  Europe is going through another summer of record-breaking 
temperatures. The north is bracing for a week of extreme heat, while the 
south is already experiencing temperatures climbing to new highs. 
Hundreds have died from the effects of the extreme heat. Strong winds 
are fueling destructive wildfires across a number of nations, and 
several firefighters have been killed.
And in sweltering Berlin, delegations from around 40 countries have 
convened to confront the climate crisis. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz 
and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi are set to address the 
forum, known as the Petersberg climate dialogue. It's meant to set the 
stage for the bigger climate conference - the United Nation's COP27, 
taking place in Egypt in November. On Monday, German Foreign Minister 
Annalena Baerbock said countries need to redouble their efforts to hit 
climate targets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S91HEBv_Gf0

- -

/[ briefing on this agency that is fighting wildfires -- from USAID -- 
great importance for this day of fires ]/
*US Agency Helping Europe Face Heat-Fueled Wildfires*
July 18, 2022
Meet Scott Dehnisch, the wildfire unit leader for the Bureau for 
Humanitarian Assistance of the U.S. Agency for International 
Development, who's been on a tour of fire-vulnerable countries in Europe 
ahead of the epic heat wave, worsened by climate change, that is 
intensifying wildfires there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnVYE_sfG-I



/[ It all comes from combustion. Dave Roberts leads a thoughtful, 
interesting and current discussion - audio podcast ]/
JUL 18, 2022
*Volts podcast: David Wallace-Wells on the ravages of air pollution*
It's real bad. Arguably worse than climate change.
Back in 2020, I wrote an article about some eye-popping new research on 
air pollution which found that the damage it is doing to human health is 
roughly twice as bad as previously thought, and moreover, that the 
economic benefits of pollution reduction vastly outweigh the costs of 
transitioning to clean energy.

It seemed to me then that the findings should have gotten more attention 
in the press, and I wasn't the only person who thought so. Journalist 
David Wallace-Wells, who made a splash a few years ago with his 
terrifying book on climate change, The Uninhabitable Earth, also dove in 
to new air pollution research and produced a magisterial overview for 
the London Review of Books last year. Recently he revisited the subject 
for his New York Times newsletter, asking why social mobilization 
against climate change, which promises millions of deaths in decades, is 
so much greater than mobilization against air pollution, which kills 10 
million a year today.

It's a challenging question, and I'm not certain I have a great answer, 
so I wanted to talk to David about it — what the new research says about 
the mind-boggling scope and scale of air pollution’s damage to human 
welfare, how we ought to think about it relative to climate change, and 
what scares him most about the process of normalization that allows us 
to live with 10 million deaths a year...
https://www.volts.wtf/p/volts-podcast-david-wallace-wells?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share#details



/[ Bulletin from Atomic Scientists ]/
*Are cities ready for extreme heat?*
By John Morales | July 18, 2022
Heat is the silent killer. It doesn’t roar like the winds in a hurricane 
or tear roofs off homes like a tornado. But it is deadly, all the same. 
In the United States, heat kills more people than any other weather 
hazard. As global warming drives average temperatures higher, 
dangerously hot episodes can be expected to proliferate. It is extremely 
unlikely that temperatures could have reached their deadly-hot levels in 
India without manmade global warming—levels that researchers say were 
made 30 times more likely by the climate crisis.

Some 70,000 dead across Europe in a 2003 heat wave. Up to 56,000 in 
Russia in 2010. North America’s most memorable heat waves in recent 
years include one in greater Chicago in 1995 that killed at least 700 
people, and a “heat dome” event last year that killed hundreds in the 
Pacific Northwest and British Columbia.

Heat-related deaths are up across all continents over the last three 
decades. Since 1991, research published in Nature Climate Change found 
that approximately 37 percent of those can be attributed to manmade 
global warming. In the United States alone, hotter temperatures could 
lead to 110,000 premature deaths per year by the end of the century if 
warming continues unabated, a Geohealth study asserts.

Which is why the most popular measure of heat stress on the human 
body—the heat index—is being reevaluated for the hotter Anthropocene.
- -
Off the charts. The heat index is “what the temperature feels like to 
the human body when relative humidity is combined with air temperature,” 
according to the National Weather Service. Bodies perspire to cool off, 
but sweat doesn’t evaporate as easily when the air is full of moisture, 
so a combination of high temperature and high humidity keeps the body 
from properly regulating itself. For example, if the air temperature is 
98 degrees Fahrenheit and the relative humidity is 70 percent, it feels 
like it’s 134 degrees Fahrenheit.

The legacy heat index table stops at values at which the body can no 
longer cool itself by sweating. This can happen when either the air 
becomes supersaturated, or the skin does. But sweat can also drip off 
the body. If that is taken into account, scientists can extend the heat 
index beyond its current limits, which will be useful for estimating 
regional health outcomes on a warmer planet.

Hotter and more humid conditions are already here and with no immediate 
end in sight to rapid climate change, temperatures by the end of this 
century could average 8 degrees Fahrenheit above what they were at the 
beginning of it. That would push the range of the highest heat index 
values beyond what the scale allows for today and into the truly 
unsurvivable range.
- -
Awareness of the threats to human health posed by high heat along with 
timely warnings about imminent heat waves can go a long way in keeping 
people out of the hospital, or worse. Naming heat waves may prove to 
help the public personalize and internalize the threat in hot places 
like Seville, Spain.

Additional annual days of high heat ("feels like" temperatures over 
105°F) forecasted for Miami-Dade county by midcentury

Moving people to cooling centers—malls, for example—is one of the 
emergency actions local authorities can take during singular heat wave 
events. But as longer and longer episodes of elevated temperatures start 
to morph into chronic high heat, city leaders must find ways to 
permanently try to counter the rise in temperature driven by global warming.

Shade and transpiration from trees can cool surface temperatures by up 
to 20 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to those exposed 
to the sun. In Miami-Dade County, Jane Gilbert and the Resilient305 
Collaborative are looking to increase the urban tree canopy from a 
paltry 20 percent to a more acceptable (but bare minimum) of 30 percent 
through, among other things, tree giveaways. The plan is to prioritize 
areas that currently have the lowest tree canopy.

Cities can also add engineered shade, like bus stop canopies and covered 
playgrounds. Those shade structures can’t cool surfaces as much as 
trees, but still can subtract 10 to 15 degrees Celsius (18 to 27 degrees 
Fahrenheit) compared to unshaded areas. As Gilbert says, “all shade is 
good.” Spread across hundreds of cities across the United States, these 
local adaptations will be crucial in saving thousands of lives.

Worldwide, millions that would otherwise succumb to high heat could be 
saved if countries implemented policies that reduced and stopped the 
burning of fossil fuels. The United States alone could save 7.4 million 
souls across the planet if it reached President Biden’s goal of net-zero 
emissions by 2050, a study by the Climate Impact Lab consortium 
estimates. This doesn’t even take into account other climate 
hazards—just heat. Acting on the climate crisis today at the local, 
national, and international level can keep millions from morbidity and 
death.

Heat is silent. You don’t have to be.
https://thebulletin.org/2022/07/are-cities-ready-for-extreme-heat/

- -

[ NOAA National Weather Service ]
*What is the heat index?*
Weather.gov
What is the heat index?
  "It's not the heat, it's the humidity".  That's a partly valid phrase 
you may have heard in the summer, but it's actually both. The heat 
index, also known as the apparent temperature, is what the temperature 
feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the 
air temperature.  This has important considerations for the human body's 
comfort.  When the body gets too hot, it begins to perspire or sweat to 
cool itself off.  If the perspiration is not able to evaporate, the body 
cannot regulate its temperature.  Evaporation is a cooling process.  
When perspiration is evaporated off the body, it effectively reduces the 
body's temperature.  When the atmospheric moisture content (i.e. 
relative humidity) is high, the rate of evaporation from the body 
decreases. In other words, the human body feels warmer in humid 
conditions. The opposite is true when the relative humidity decreases 
because the rate of perspiration increases.  The body actually feels 
cooler in arid conditions.  There is direct relationship between the air 
temperature and relative humidity and the heat index, meaning as the air 
temperature and relative humidity increase (decrease), the heat index 
increases (decreases).
https://www.weather.gov/ama/heatindex

- -

https://www.weather.gov/    for Severe Weather, Dangerous Heat, Flood 
Potential



/[ Beckwith asks "what is the heat limit?" - Answer, there is no limit ]/
*Too Hot to Handle*
Jul 17, 2022  Dr. Peter Carter, Paul Beckwith and Regina Valdez discuss 
wet bulb temperature and how it is making survivability in the heat more 
difficult in regions that are already historically hot.

This video was recorded on June 29th, 2022, and published on July 17th, 
2022.

Some of the topics discussed:
- What is wet bulb temperature and what are its thresholds for 
survivability?
- How higher wet bulb temperatures are affecting farmers in India and 
Pakistan.
- How prolonged exposure to high wet bulb temperatures can, within a few 
hours, lead to heat exhaustion and death.
- The importance of air conditioning and other methods of cooling the 
body during high wet bulb temperature periods.
- How the wet bulb survivability threshold has been found to be lower 
than the theoretical threshold.
- The fact that older people, babies and people on certain medications 
are most vulnerable to higher wet bulb temperatures.
- How heat waves resulting in higher wet bulb temperatures can lead to 
massive die offs of people and animals as portrayed in the book by Kim 
Stanley Robinson called ‘The Ministry for the Future.’
- How high occurrences of high wet bulb temperatures will lead to the 
need for ‘Chill Suites,’ along with other solutions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VLpJ_NGZyg



/[ tongue out, panting, sweat  ]/
*Heatwaves worsen mental health conditions*
July 12, 2022
Laurence Wainwright
Departmental Lecturer and Course Director, Sustainability, Enterprise 
and the Environment, University of Oxford

Eileen Neumann
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Neuroscience, University of Zurich
Heatwaves have a huge impact on our physical and mental health. Doctors 
usually dread them, as emergency rooms quickly fill up with patients 
suffering from dehydration, delirium and fainting. Recent studies 
suggest at least a 10% rise in hospital emergency room visits on days 
when temperatures reach or exceed the top 5% of the normal temperature 
range for a given location.

Soaring temperatures can also make symptoms worse in those with mental 
health conditions. Heatwaves – as well as other weather events such as 
floods and fires – have been linked to a rise in depressive symptoms in 
people with depression, and a rise in anxiety symptoms in those with 
generalised anxiety disorder – a disorder where people feel anxious most 
of the time.

There is also a link between daily high temperature and suicide and 
suicide attempts. And, roughly speaking, for every 1℃ increase in 
monthly average temperature, mental health-related deaths increase by 
2.2%. Spikes in relative humidity also result in a higher occurrence of 
suicide.

Humidity and temperature – both of which are changing as a result of 
human-induced climate change – have been causally linked to a rise in 
manic episodes in people with bipolar disorder. This state of the 
illness causes significant harm and can result in hospitalisation for 
psychosis and thoughts of suicide.

Get facts about the coronavirus pandemic and the latest research
Further problems are posed by the fact that the effectiveness of 
important drugs used to treat psychiatric illness can be reduced by the 
effects of heat. We know that many drugs increase the risk of 
heat-related death, for example, antipsychotics, which can suppress 
thirst resulting in people becoming dehydrated. Some drugs will work 
differently depending on the body temperature and how dehydrated the 
person is, such as lithium, a very potent and widely used 
mood-stabiliser, frequently prescribed for people with bipolar disorder.

Fuzzy thinking, aggressive behaviour
Heat can also affect the mental health and ability to think and reason 
of people without a mental health disorder. Research shows that areas of 
the brain responsible for framing and solving complex cognitive tasks 
are impaired by heat stress.

A study of students in Boston found that those in rooms without air 
conditioning during a heatwave performed 13% worse than their peers in 
cognitive tests and had 13% slower reaction time.

When people are not thinking clearly due to heat, it is more likely they 
will become frustrated, and this, in turn, can lead to aggression.

Frustration can lead to aggression. Marian Weyo/Shutterstock
There is strong evidence linking extreme heat with a rise in violent 
crime. Even just a one or two degree celsius increase in ambient 
temperatures can lead to a 3-5% spike in assaults.

By 2090, it is estimated that climate change could be responsible for up 
to a 5% increase in all crime categories, globally. The reasons for 
these increases involve a complex interaction of psychological, social 
and biological factors. For instance, a brain chemical called serotonin, 
which, among other things, keeps levels of aggression in check, is 
affected by high temperatures.

Hot days can also exacerbate eco-anxiety. In the UK, 60% of young people 
surveyed said they are very worried or extremely worried about climate 
change. More than 45% of those questioned said feelings about the 
climate affected their daily lives.

There is still a lot we don’t understand about the complex interplay and 
feedback loops between climate change and mental health – especially the 
effects of heatwaves. But what we do know is that we are playing a 
dangerous game with ourselves and the planet. Heatwaves, and the effects 
they have on our mental health, are important reminders that the best 
thing we can do to help ourselves and future generations is to act on 
climate change.
https://theconversation.com/heatwaves-worsen-mental-health-conditions-186759



/[  Notice the sands, my children  ]/
*Shifting Sands: Carolina’s Outer Banks Face a Precarious Future*
Despite the risks of building on barrier islands, developers kept 
constructing homes on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Now, as sea level 
rises and storms become more frequent and powerful, the famed vacation 
spot is fighting an increasingly difficult battle to keep from washing away.
BY GILBERT M. GAUL -- JULY 14, 2022
https://e360.yale.edu/features/outer-banks-climate-change-flooding

- -

/[ the greatest poem I have ever read is about sand  - 2009 ]/
*Times of Sand*
Richard Bready
https://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/2009/08/the-poetry-of-sand-guest-writer-richard-bready.html



[  Australian politics - ]
*IN FULL: The government will protect 30 per cent of land and oceans by 
2030 | ABC News*
Streamed live July 18, 2022
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has addressed the National Press 
Club following a five-yearly report into Australia's climate, which she 
has described as "shocking." Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE  Read more 
here: https://ab.co/3aKhgYI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOmggyDFgyg



/[The news archive - looking back twenty one years ago ]/
/*July 19, 2001*/
July 19, 2001: Proving that the wish is the father to the thought, White 
House adviser Karen Hughes tells CNN, "The whole issue of global climate 
change is something our administration is serious about."

    McEDWARDS: And you know how controversial the issue has been in
    Europe. I mean, is there anything going on behind the scenes now to
    reach a compromise on this issue?

    HUGHES: Well, we have representatives attending the climate change
    on -- in Bonn as we speak. As the president is here in Europe, we
    also have representatives of our government attending the Bonn
    summit on climate change.

    And so, again, President Bush will once again assure our allies and
    friends here in Europe that this is an issue we take very seriously.
    However, he is committed to protecting America's interests and will
    not take any action that exempts -- the Kyoto treaty, as you recall,
    exempts many -- much of the developing world from its requirements.
    And, therefore, we feel it puts an unfair burden on the United
    States of America, yet does not address the problem in a truly
    global way.

http://web.archive.org/web/20140427081627/http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/07/19/hughes.access.cnna/


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