Lethal Heating: 05/27/20

27/05/2020

(AU) Bushfires Left Estimated 445 Dead From Smoke And A Nation Traumatised

Sydney Morning Herald - Nick O'Malley

An estimated 445 people were killed by exposure to bushfire smoke over the Black Summer fires, while 3340 were admitted to hospital due to heart and lung problems and 1373 people attended emergency departments due to complications to asthma.

The extra health costs associated with the premature loss of life and admissions to hospitals was estimated to be $2 billion, Professor Fay Johnston, a specialist in environmental health at the University of Tasmania, told the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements.

Bushfires scorched through some 12 million hectares across Australia last summer. Credit: Nick Moir

The estimates, presented in evidence to the royal commission, are based on modelling of the impact of ultra-fine particles - those smaller than one 1000th of a millimetre - suspended in bushfire smoke over Australian populations during the bushfires season.

The cost estimates did not include further costs to society such as loss of time at work or school.

A fire at Orangeville in NSW in December. Credit: Nick Moir

Professor Johnston said the cost estimate was about 10 times higher than the fluctuations researches would normally see from year to year when studying bushfire seasons.

"That was a major departure from anything we have seen in the previous 20 years," she said.

Nor did the estimated health impacts include the longer-term effects on individuals who would have had their stress increased or disruption to their medical treatments plans, or the impact of a lack of exercise on the community as the smoke lingered for days and weeks over cities.

Leading scientists have warned of more frequent and hotter bushfire seasons on the first day of hearings in the Royal Commission into Natural Disasters.

The royal commission also heard that natural disasters are hitting Australia so much more frequently due to the impact of climate change that survivors no longer have the benefit of a sense of safety during their recovery.

"[Disasters] are no longer perceived as rare events, they are often seen as climate change, and they're part of our new reality," Professor Lisa Gibbs, a child welfare expert with the University of Melbourne, said.

"We don't know how that is going to affect recovery because the seeds of hope… are [a] really important part of people's ability to deal with what has happened and [to] get back on track."

Some children who survived the Black Summer bushfires would have been traumatised by learning from the experience that their parents cannot always keep them safe, she said.

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(AU) Climate Change In Deep Oceans Could Be Seven Times Faster By Middle Of Century, Report Says

The Guardian - Graham Readfearn

Uneven heating could have major impact on marine wildlife, as species that rely on each other for survival are forced to move

‘Marine life in the deep ocean will face escalating threats from ocean warming until the end of the century, no matter what we do now,’ report author says. Photograph: BBC/Jo Ruxton

Rates of climate change in the world’s ocean depths could be seven times higher than current levels by the second half of this century even if emissions of greenhouse gases were cut dramatically, according to new research.

Different global heating at different depths could have major impacts on ocean wildlife, causing disconnects as species that rely on each other for survival are forced to move.

In the new research, scientists looked at a measure called climate velocity – the speed at which species would need to move to stay within their preferred temperature range as different ocean layers warm.

The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, found different parts of the ocean would change at different rates as the extra heat from increasing levels of greenhouse gases moved through the vast ocean depths.

By the second half of the century, the study found “a rapid acceleration of climate change exposure throughout the water column”.

The study used climate models to first estimate the current rates of climate velocity at different ocean depths, and then future rates under three scenarios – one where emissions started to fall from now; another where they began to fall by the middle of this century; and a third where emissions continued to rise up to 2100.

Prof Jorge García Molinos, a climate ecologist at Hokkaido University and a co-author of the study, said: “Our results suggest that deep sea biodiversity is likely to be at greater risk because they are adapted to much more stable thermal environments.”

At present, the world’s heating was already causing species to shift in all layers of the ocean from the surface to more than 4km down, but at different speeds.

But even under a highly optimistic scenario, where emissions fell sharply from now, the ocean’s mesopelagic layer – from 200m to 1km down – climate velocity would change from about 6km per decade to 50km by the second half of the century. But over the same period, climate velocity would halve at the surface.

Even at depths of between 1,000 and 4,000 metres, climate velocity would triple current rates, even if emissions dropped sharply.

Prof Anthony Richardson, of the University of Queensland and the CSIRO and one of the study’s 10 authors, told Guardian Australia: “What really concerns us is that as you move down through the ocean, climate velocity moves at different speeds.”

This could create a disconnect for species that rely on organisms in different layers.

For example, Richardson said tuna lived in the mesopelagic layer between 200 and 1,000 metres deep, but they relied on plankton species near the surface.

He said because the planet’s oceans were so large and stored so much heat, “warming already absorbed at the ocean surface will mix into deeper waters.”

“This means that marine life in the deep ocean will face escalating threats from ocean warming until the end of the century, no matter what we do now.”

Isaac Brito-Morales, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the University of Queensland, said: “Because the deep ocean has a more stable temperature, any small increase will have an impact on species – they’re more at risk than those at the surface.”

Richardson added it was “concerning” their results showed, as well as different rates of climate velocity at different depths, the direction that species would need to move wasn’t uniform either.

This could mean that marine park areas designed to protect different species or habitats could become compromised as species moved out of the protected areas into unprotected areas.

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A First Dog On The Moon Live Action Cartoon! Will The Coronavirus Save Us From Climate Change?

The Guardian - First Dog On The Moon

No it will not!

Will the coronavirus save us from climate change?

A First Dog on the Moon live action cartoon!

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