Lethal Heating: 01/05/22

05/01/2022

(AU Shepparton News) Volunteer Fire Brigade Council Warns Of Increased Fire Danger Caused By Climate Change

Dangerous: VFBV members have warned climate change is driving more intense fires, more often, which are now starting 50 days earlier, on average, than just 70 years ago. Photo by AAP Image/Julian Smith

The weather conditions that drove the Black Summer fires will be four times more likely under forecast levels of climate change.

Those are the words of Wangaratta volunteer firefighter, Garry Nash, speaking as President of District 23 Council of Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria.

“That’s what we firefighters face if nothing is done,” Mr Nash said in response to a recent CSIRO report showing that changes in weather because of global warming were the main driving force behind the escalation in Australia’s bushfires.

“Despite forecast summer rains, we know the long-term trend is clear.

“Climate change is bringing more intense fires, more often, and starting an average of 50 days earlier than 70 years ago.”

Mr Nash was launching a statewide communication to CFA volunteers on the impact of climate change seeking their responses.

District 23 VFBV Council, representing CFA volunteers around Wangaratta, Benalla, Moyhu and Mansfield, is informing volunteer firefighters of the findings of a webinar it conducted in 2021.

The webinar heard from Bureau of Meteorology scientist Dr Lynette Bettio, cardiologist Dr Arnagretta Hunter, and economist and businessman Dr John Hewson.

From their respective areas of expertise, the presenters provided research data on weather, health, and economic effects of climate change so far, as well as projections into the future.

Dr Bettio concluded with the alarming finding that Australia’s warming during the next decade was already set by historical greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.

Dr Hunter reported on research on the health effects on people when exposed to weeks of high temperatures, on their work, mental health, concentration and decision-making.

She said communities needed to look at what might happen with temperatures of 50 degrees.

Dr Hewson provided costs of recent extreme-weather events, and projections of future costs, which he said far outweighed the costs of getting to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

He was optimistic about Australia’s future provided we completed the transition to renewable energy and the electrification of the transport fleet.

The VFBV consultation has started communication to all of Victoria’s District VFBV Councils, including a link to the actual webinar as well as a summary document, with a request to include all of its local CFA brigades to consider the webinar presentation, and provide feedback in early 2022.

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(ABC) What Is Aquamation, Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Requested Flameless Cremation?

ABC News - ABC/AFP

Archbishop Desmond Tutu was known for his modest lifestyle. (Reuters: Carlos Barria)

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been laid to rest in Cape Town after a state funeral and a private ceremony, interred behind the pulpit from where he once denounced bigotry and racial tyranny.

The archbishop, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, has been praised around the world for his role in helping transform South Africa with his non-violent opposition to white minority rule.

He died aged 90. He was outspoken about protecting the environment, giving speeches and writing articles about the need to take action to combat climate change, and requested his body be aquamated — considered to be a greener alternative to cremation.

Desmond Tutu's funeral was held at St George's Cathedral a week after his death at the age of 90. (Reuters: Jaco Marais)

What is aquamation?

Aquamation is a cremation method using water that funeral parlours are touting as environmentally friendly.

The process, also known as "alkaline hydrolysis", consists of cremation by water rather than fire.

The body of the deceased is immersed for three to four hours in a mixture of water and strong alkali-like potassium hydroxide in a pressurised metal cylinder and heated to around 150 degrees Celsius.

The process liquefies everything except for the bones, which are then dried in an oven, reduced to white dust and placed in an urn.

The water can be processed through normal wastewater treatment facilities.

How long has it been around?

First developed in the early 1990s as a way to discard the bodies of animals used in experiments, the method was later used to dispose of cows during the mad cow disease epidemic, US-based researcher Philip R Olson says.

In the 2000s, US medical schools used aquamation to dispose of donated human cadavers, before the practice made its way into the funeral industry, he wrote in a 2014 paper.

The process is also used to dispose of animal carcasses in slaughterhouses, where it is considered to be more efficient and hygienic.

With burial space in urban areas worldwide becoming increasingly scarce and expensive, aquamation has obvious attractions.

However, like human composting — a technique of composting bodies with layers of organic material like leaves or wood chips — aquamation is still authorised only in certain countries.

In South Africa, where Tutu died, no legislation governs the practice.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu was remembered as a man whose light shone brighter after winning the Nobel Peace Prize. (Reuters: Shelley Christians)

Is it actually greener?

Its advocates claim water is a gentler way to go than flames, a liquid cremation consumes less energy than a conventional one and emits fewer greenhouse gases.

According to UK-based firm Resomation, aquamation uses five times less energy than fire and reduces a funeral's emissions of greenhouse gases by around 35 per cent.

Environmentally Friendly Cremations, a company based in Australia, claims water cremation "produces less than 10 per cent of the carbon emissions" of fire cremation, and a firm based in the US said the process "uses 90 per cent less energy than flame cremation".

Tutu, who died on Boxing Day aged 90, was known for his modest lifestyle. He left instructions that his funeral ceremony should be simple and without frills.

The anti-apartheid hero specifically asked for a cheap coffin and the eco-friendly cremation.

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(IPCC) How Do Changes In The Polar Regions Affect Other Parts Of The World?

United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic affect people outside of the polar regions in two key ways.

First, physical and ecosystem changes in the polar regions have socio-economic impacts that extend across the globe.

Second, physical changes in the Arctic and Antarctic influence processes that are important for global climate and sea level. Among the risks to societies and economies, aspects of food provision, transport, and access to nonrenewable resources are of great importance.

Fisheries in the pcolar oeans support regional and global food security and are important for the economies of many countries around the world, but climate change alters Arctic and Antarctic marine habitats, and affects the ability of polar species and ecosystems to withstand or adapt to physical changes.

This has consequences for where, when, and how many fish can be captured. Impacts will vary between regions, depending on the degree of climate change and the effectiveness of human responses.

While management in some polar fisheries is among the most developed, scientists are exploring modifications to existing precautionary, ecosystem-based management approaches to increase the scope for adaptation to climate change impacts on marine ecosystems and fisheries.

New shipping routes through the Arctic offer cost savings because they are shorter than traditional passages via the Suez or Panama Canals. Ship traffic has already increased and is projected to become more feasible in the coming decades as further reductions in sea ice cover make Arctic routes more accessible.

Increased Arctic shipping has significant socio-economic and political implications for global trade, northern nations, and economies strongly linked to traditional shipping corridors, while also increasing environmental risk in the Arctic. Reduced Arctic sea ice cover allows greater access to offshore petroleum resources and ports supporting resource extraction on land.

The polar regions influence the global climate through a number of processes. As spring snow and summer sea ice cover decrease, more heat is absorbed at the surface. There is growing evidence that ongoing changes in the Arctic, primarily sea ice loss, can potentially influence mid-latitude weather.

As temperatures increase in the Arctic, permafrost soils in northern regions store less carbon. The release of carbon dioxide and methane from the land to the atmosphere further contributes to global warming.

Melting ice sheets and glaciers in the polar regions cause sea levels to rise, affecting coastal regions and their large populations and economies. At present, the Greenland Ice Sheet and polar glaciers are contributing more to sea level rise than the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

However, ice loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet has continued to accelerate, driven primarily by increased melting of the underside of floating ice shelves, which has caused glaciers to flow faster.

Even though it remains difficult to project the amount of ice loss from Antarctica after the second half of the 21st century, it is expected to contribute significantly to future sea level rise.

The Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica is the main region globally where waters at depth rise to the surface.

Here, they become transformed into cold, dense waters that sink back to the deep ocean, storing significant amounts of human-produced heat and dissolved carbon for decades to centuries or longer, and helping to slow the rate of global warming in the atmosphere.

Future changes in the strength of this ocean circulation can so far only be projected with limited certainty.

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