Lethal Heating: 01/28/18

28/01/2018

Australia Among Countries Growing Hotter Faster: Report

Fairfax - Reuters

London: Summer days are growing hotter in the world's big cities at a significantly faster pace than the average rise in world temperatures.
It is a trend that could mean more deadly urban heatwaves in years ahead, scientists have claimed.

A tennis fan does his best to keep cool on day four of the Australian Open in Melbourne, this week. Photo: AAP

The trend is particularly pronounced in parts of Australia, Europe and, East Asia, a report released in the journal Earth's Future said.
In cities such as Paris, Houston, Moscow and Beijing, heat on the hottest summer days is growing two or three times as quickly as general temperature rises linked to climate change over the last 50 years, said researchers at the University of California-Irvine.
With more than half of the world's population now living in cities - and more than 65 per cent of people expected to live there by 2050 - rising city heat extremes could put billions at risk, particularly the poor, the researchers said.

"There are more than a billion people living in extreme poverty, with many of them living in megacities and large urban centres. These are people struggling to survive," said Simon Michael Papalexiou, an environmental engineer and the lead author of the study.
Most such people have no access to air conditioning or other alternatives to protect themselves, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The study found that average global temperatures have risen an average of 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade over the last 50 years.
But in Paris, France, the increase per decade of the hottest temperatures recorded was nearly one degree Celsius, researchers found, with cities such as Barcelona, Houston, Moscow and Beijing also seeing big hikes.
Such increases have contributed to heatwave disasters, including almost 70,000 deaths in Europe in 2003, and about 55,000 deaths in Russia in 2010, the report said.
But the bigger worry is what will happen as more people crowd into bigger hotter cities, the authors said.
In the last two decades, the number of cities with at least five million people doubled, they reported.

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Local Councils Step Up Climate Change Action With CPP

Illawarra Mercury - Professor Lesley Hughes*

As Australia swelters through intense heat waves, local councils have stepped up to tackle climate change in their own backyard.
The Cities Power Partnership (CPP), Australia’s fastest growing local government climate network, this week welcomed 35 new councils, bringing it to 70 councils.
From Bathurst in New South Wales through to Brighton in Tasmania, councils are answering the call to combat climate change through clean energy, sustainable transport and energy efficiency.
Over half of the councils in the CPP are regional or rural. Regional Australia is already feeling the impact of climate change, such as intensifying heatwaves, super-charged storms and worsening bushfires, in addition to a steep escalation in power prices.
Councils, as the tier of government that’s closest to the community, are uniquely placed to bring the benefits of cheap, reliable renewable energy to regional Australia.
In the six months since the launch of the CPP we’ve seen a surge of council renewable energy projects, from Lismore’s floating solar farm through to a solar bulk buy program in Strathbogie, Victoria helping residents combat rising power bills.

While Federal climate policy stalls, local governments are rolling up their sleeves and getting on with the job. With 7.5 million Australians now represented by CPP councils, the groundswell of grassroots climate action is fast spreading across the country.
This mirrors what we’re seeing from around the globe, as cities and towns create ambitious renewable energy targets and climate solutions. Transforming the way cities and towns use energy could make up to 70 per cent of the greenhouse gas reductions needed to limit worsening climate change.
We’re calling on all councils across Australia to stand up and become part of the climate solution, by signing up to the CPP.

*Professor Lesley Hughes is a Climate Councillor and an ecologist.

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Powerful Volcanic Eruptions Will Likely Get More Frequent In The Future, Scientists Say

Business Insider - Jeremy Berke

A recent paper found a link between glaciers and volcanism.
As glaciers retreat because of climate change and other causes, volcanic activity tends to increase, according to the analysis.
That means as the planet warms, there will likely be more volcanic eruptions.

Shawn Appel/Unsplash

A strong volcanic eruption in the Philippines forced over 50,000 people to evacuate and sent ash plumes over a mile into the sky on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, an eruption at a Japanese ski resort north of Tokyo caused avalanches that killed one person and trapped many others on the mountain.
These powerful volcanic events may be examples of what the world could look like in coming centuries due to an ominous trend. A recent study in the journal Geology suggests that volcanic activity is likely to increase as the planet warms from human-caused climate change.
The key, according to the researchers, is the relationship between glacial ice and subsurface magma.
To understand this effect, the team studied records of volcanic eruptions in Iceland from 5,500 to 4,500 years ago – when the climate was much colder than it is today. The researchers looked at ash deposits in the geologic record in Iceland and Europe, and figured out which periods had increased volcanic activity based on thicker, more widespread ash in lakes and bogs.
The team then analysed these high-activity periods in relation to times of glacial retreat. They found that the number of eruptions declined as the climate cooled and glacial cover increased. During that time, there was also a reduction in the volume of lava that came out of Icelandic volcanoes.
The reverse was also true. When glaciers retreated, the researchers found that volcanic activity increased.

Bali's Mount Agung. Credit: Pexels Pixabay

Scientists say Earth’s glacial ice is melting at an unprecedented rate due to climate change. Between 1979 and 2006, summer melt of the Greenland Ice Sheet increased by 30%, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. At Glacier National Park, all but 26 of the 150 glaciers that existed in the late 1800s have melted away, and scientists predict we’ll lose the rest.
However, the new paper found a 600-year lag between when glaciers expanded and when volcanic activity decreased, Graeme T. Swindles, the paper’s lead author and a professor of at the University of Leeds, told Scientific American. The paper didn’t calculate how much time elapsed between the retreat of glaciers and the increase in eruptions, but the delay could be similar.
“Given the time lag identified here, increase in volcanic eruptions due to ongoing deglaciation since the end of the Little Ice Age may not become apparent for hundreds of years,” the paper said.
While the relationship between glacial retreat and increased volcanic activity isn’t fully understood, the connection is likely due to the pressure glacial ice exerts on the Earth’s surface. When that pressure eases, magma can more easily bubble up.
“After glaciers are removed, the surface pressure decreases, and the magmas more easily propagate to the surface and thus erupt,” Swindles said.
Iceland has a lot of glaciers and is volcanically active, so that area may be more susceptible to this effect than, say, the Philippines. But Swindles warned that the trend is likely not confined to the northern country.
“I think we can predict we’re probably going to see a lot more volcanic activity in areas of the world where glaciers and volcanoes interact,” Swindles told Scientific American, pointing to the Pacific Northwest, South America, and Antarctica.

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