Greenland Lost A Staggering 1 Trillion Tons Of Ice In Just Four Years

Washington Post - Chelsea Harvey


Greenland ice loss has recently contributed to twice as much sea-level rise than in the preceding two decades. (Reuters)

It’s no news that Greenland is in serious trouble — but now, new research has helped quantify just how bad its problems are. A satellite study, published last week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, suggests that the Greenland ice sheet lost a whopping 1 trillion tons of ice between the years 2011 and 2014 alone. And a big portion of it came from just five glaciers, about which scientists now have more cause to worry than ever.
It’s the latest story in a long series of increasingly worrisome studies on ice loss in Greenland. Research already suggests that the ice sheet has lost at least 9 trillion tons of ice in the past century and that the rate of loss has increased over time. Climate scientists are keeping a close eye on the region because of its potentially huge contributions to future sea-level rise (around 20 feet if the whole thing were to melt) — not to mention the damage it’s already done. Ice loss from Greenland may have contributed as much as a full inch of sea-level rise in the last 100 years and up to 10 percent of all the sea-level rise that’s been documented since the 1990s.
The new study takes a detailed look at ice loss in Greenland between 2011 and 2014 using measurements from the CryoSat-2, an environmental research satellite launched by the European Space Agency in 2010. It relied on a type of measurement known as altimetry — basically, measuring how the surface of Greenland’s altitude changed over time in response to ice gains or losses.
“Simplistically, if the ice sheet’s going up, we can find that as evidence that the ice sheet is growing,” said lead author Malcolm McMillan, a research fellow at the University of Leeds. “And where we see that the ice sheet surface is lowering, we can find that the ice sheet is losing ice.”
But he cautioned that this is something of a simplification. The researchers also had to consider how other factors such as snowfall — which would be difficult to differentiate by satellite — might be affecting changes on the surface of the ice sheet.
“Snow and ice are at different densities, so they’re associated with a different amount of mass loss,” McMillan explained. “We used a regional climate model and a model of the surface of the ice sheet to really inform us and tell us about the nature of the changes that we’re seeing.”
Using this method — combining the satellite observations with modeling — the researchers found that the Greenland ice sheet lost mass at an average rate of about 269 billion tons per year from January 2011 through December 2014. Altogether, this comes to about 1 trillion tons of ice loss over the four-year period.
That said, there were some major fluctuations from one year to the next — an observation that University of Sheffield climate expert Edward Hanna (who was not involved in the new study) said is one of the paper’s most notable findings. The biggest losses were observed in 2012, when an unusually warm summer helped bring about a loss of more than 400 billion tons of ice. The next year, 2013, saw a comparatively modest loss of just over 100 billion tons.
“There’s not so many studies that do these sort of trend analyses or time studies for the latest few years,” Hanna noted. “So it’s really trying to assess how the ice sheet is responding to ongoing climate variability or change.”
Overall, the ice loss was particularly prevalent in the southwest, but the scientists noted that there were also losses observed in the cooler, northern parts of the ice sheet. Notably, the researchers also found that a solid 12 percent of all the ice loss came from just a handful of glaciers composing less than 1 percent of the ice sheet’s total area.
Each of these five glaciers flows outward into the sea, so that a combination of both rising air temperatures and ocean temperatures likely play a part in their ongoing retreat. Among these was the iconic Jakobshavn glacier, a well-studied location now famous for its recent massive ice losses. It’s been known to calve blocks of ice boasting several square miles in surface area, as measured from above.
Scientists were already fairly well aware of the massive losses being suffered by these glaciers, McMillan acknowledged. But the finding helps reinforce previous observations and drive home their disproportionate role in the ice sheet’s contributions to sea-level rise. “Also … it means that going forward, we’re able to kind of develop long-term and systematic records that we can [use to] regularly monitor these glaciers and see how they’re changing into the future,” he said.
In fact, the study’s results match up reasonably well with measurements taken by certain other satellites. After doing some comparisons, the researchers found that data from NASA’s GRACE satellites, for instance, suggest that Greenland is losing ice at a rate of about 287 billions tons per year. And according to Hanna, the results stand well with scientists’ overall estimates of recent ice loss in Greenland, which he says are consistently suggested to be around 250 billion tons annually for the past few years.
In this way, the study reinforces many beliefs that were already widely held about Greenland’s precarious condition. But the techniques used to do so may strengthen future measurements, which will be used to inform the climate models that help scientists make predictions about how the ice sheet will behave in the future — a crucial step in determining the amount of sea-level rise we might expect over any given time period.
“I guess the most significant or the most novel aspect of the study is really the resolution or the detail that we’re able to measure,” McMillan said. “Although satellite techniques give us a holistic view of how the ice sheet as a whole is changing, what we’re able to do by using this specific technique is identify specific regions that are changing. And that’s really important because it kind of gives us more of an idea of the processes that are causing the changes.”

Links

• The world’s clouds are in different places than they were 30 years ago
• Scientists think they’ve just pinpointed the key driver of ice loss in Antarctica
• The diversity of life across much of Earth has plunged below ‘safe’ levels

2016 On Pace To Be Hottest Year Ever As Climate Change Trends Reach ‘New Climax’– UN

UN News Centre

Wilted crops in Neno district, Malawi. Photo: OCHA/Tamara van Vliet

Global temperatures for the first six months of this year reached new highs, setting 2016 on track to be the hottest-ever on record, the United Nations weather agency said today.
"Another month, another record. And another. And another. Decades-long trends of climate change are reaching new climaxes, fuelled by the strong 2015/2016 El Niño," said World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Petteri Taalas in a press release.
The El Niño event, which turned up the Earth's thermostat, has now disappeared, but "climate change, caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gases, will not," he stressed. This means more heatwaves, more extreme rainfall and potential for higher impact tropical cyclones.
Arctic sea ice melted early and fast, another indicator of climate change. Carbon dioxide levels, which are driving global warming, have reached new highs.
To calculate global temperature statistics for its annual state of the climate report, WMO uses datasets from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (NASA GISS), and the UK's Met Office and reanalysis data from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF).

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (second from left) in discussion with Petteri Talaas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), at the WMO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas.

Two separate reports from NOAA and NASA GISS both highlighted the dramatic and sweeping changes in the state of the climate.
June 2016 marked the 14th consecutive month of record heat for land and oceans. It marked the 378th consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th century average. The last month with temperatures below the 20th century average was December 1984.
Carbon dioxide concentrations have passed the symbolic milestone of 400 parts per million in the atmosphere so far this year. CO2 levels vary according to the season, but the underlying trend is upwards. They showed a surprising increase for the first half of 2016, rising in June 2016 to nearly 407 ppm, 4 ppm greater than June 2015.
"This underlines more starkly than ever the need to approve and implement the Paris Agreement on climate change, and to speed up the shift to low carbon economies and renewable energy," said Mr. Taalas.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited leaders to a special event on 21 September to deposit their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession to the Paris Agreement on climate change, which was adopted by last December. The event will also provide an opportunity to other countries to publicly commit to the agreement before the end of 2016.

It's getting hotter
The average temperature in the first six months of 2016 was 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the pre-industrial era in the late 19th century, according to NASA.
NOAA said the global land and ocean average temperature for January–June was 1.05 degrees Celsius (1.89 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th century average, beating the previous record set in 2015 by 0.20 degree Celsius (0.36 degree Fahrenheit).
Each month in 2016 was record warm. Most of the world's land and ocean surfaces had warmer to much-warmer-than-average conditions.
The El Niño event which developed in 2015 and was one of the most powerful on record contributed to the record temperatures in the first half of 2016. It dissipated in May.

Arctic Sea ice is melting faster
The extent of Arctic sea ice at the peak of the summer melt season now typically covers 40 per cent less area than it did in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Arctic sea ice extent in September, the seasonal low point in the annual cycle, has been declining at a rate of 13.4 per cent per decade.

A view from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's small plane on arrival in King George Island, Antarctica. The Secretary-General traveled to Antarctica to see the effects of climate change on melting glaciers.

Depending on where you are, it's either too wet or too dry
Rainfall in June 2016 varied significantly around the world. It was notably drier than normal across the western and central contiguous US, Spain, northern Colombia, northeastern Brazil, Chile, southern Argentina, and across parts of central Russia.
Wetter-than-normal precipitation was observed across northern Argentina, northern and central Europe, much of Australia, and across central and southern Asia.
From January to 4 July, China saw 21.2 per cent above average precipitation. South China entered the flood season on 21 March, 16 days earlier than normal and more than 150 counties were record wet, according to the China Meteorological Administration. More than 300 rivers crossed the water level warning mark.

Coral reefs are under increasing threat
Temperatures in the Coral Sea (including the Great Barrier Reef), and the Tasman Sea were highest on record for extended periods since late summer 2016, according to Australia's Bureau of Meteorology.
These warm waters have also contributed to surface temperature warmth over Australia and unprecedented bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, according to Australia's independent Climate Council. There has been widespread bleaching of reefs in many other parts of the world.

Links

• With hottest April on record, streak of above-average global temperatures continues – UN
• UN chief invites leaders to fast-track ratification of Paris climate deal
• Trees contribute to reducing carbon footprints even after being cut down – UN report
• Ban urges burden-sharing, solidarity to combat effects of El Niño and mitigate climate change

A Brief History Of Fossil-Fuelled Climate Denial

The Conversation - John Cook

Fossil fuel industry-funded organisations have played a big role in climate denial. Coal power image from www.shutterstock.com

The fossil fuel industry has spent many millions of dollars on confusing the public about climate change. But the role of vested interests in climate science denial is only half the picture.
Interest in this topic has spiked with the latest revelation regarding coalmining company Peabody Energy. After Peabody filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, documentation became available revealing the scope of Peabody's funding to third parties. The list of funding recipients includes trade associations, lobby groups and climate-contrarian scientists.
This latest revelation is significant because in recent years, fossil fuel companies have become more careful to cover their tracks. An analysis by Robert Brulle found that from 2003 to 2010, organisations promoting climate misinformation received more than US$900 million of corporate funding per year.
However, Brulle found that from 2008, open funding dropped while funding through untraceable donor networks such as Donors Trust (otherwise known as the "dark money ATM") increased. This allowed corporations to fund climate science denial while hiding their support.
The decrease in open funding of climate misinformation coincided with efforts to draw public attention to the corporate funding of climate science denial. A prominent example is Bob Ward, formerly of the UK Royal Society, who in 2006 challenged Exxon-Mobil to stop funding denialist organisations.

John Cook interviews Bob Ward at COP21, Paris

The veils of secrecy have been temporarily lifted by the Peabody bankruptcy proceedings, revealing the extent of the company's third-party payments, some of which went to fund climate misinformation. However, this is not the first revelation of fossil fuel funding of climate misinformation – nor is it the first case involving Peabody.
In 2015, Ben Stewart of Greenpeace posed as a consultant to fossil fuel companies and approached prominent climate denialists, offering to pay for reports promoting the benefits of fossil fuels. The denialists readily agreed to write fossil-fuel-friendly reports while hiding the funding source. One disclosed that he had been paid by Peabody to write contrarian research. He had also appeared as an expert witness and written newspaper op-eds.

John Cook interviews Ben Stewart, Greenpeace at COP21, Paris.

The bigger picture of fossil-fuelled denial
Peabody's funding of climate change information and misinformation is one episode in a much larger history of fossil-fuel-funded misinformation. An analysis of more than 40,000 texts by contrarian sources found that organisations who received corporate funding published more climate misinformation, a trend that increased over time.
The following figure shows the use of the claim that "CO₂ is good" (a favourite argument of Peabody Energy) has increased dramatically among corporate-funded sources compared with unfunded ones.

Prevalence of denialist claim from corporate funded and non-funded sources. Farrell (2015)

In 1991, Western Fuels Association combined with other groups representing fossil fuel interests to produce a series of misinformation campaigns. This included a video promoting the positive benefits of carbon dioxide, with hundreds of free copies sent to journalists and university libraries. The goal of the campaign was to "reposition global warming as theory (not fact)", attempting to portray the impression of an active scientific debate about human-caused global warming.
ExxonSecrets.org has been tracking fossil-fuel-funded misinformation campaigns for more than two decades – documenting more than A$30 million of funding from Exxon alone to denialist think tanks from 1998 to 2014.
Exxon's funding of climate science denial over this period is particularly egregious considering that it knew full well the risks from human-caused climate change. David Sassoon, founder of Pulitzer Prize-winning news organisation Inside Climate News led an investigation into Exxon's internal research, discovering that its own scientists had warned the company of the harmful impacts of fossil fuel burning as long ago as the 1970s.

John Cook interviews David Sassoon from Inside Climate News.

Even Inside Climate News's revelation of industry's knowledge of the harmful effects of climate change before engaging in misinformation campaigns has precedence. In 2009, an internal report for the Global Climate Coalition, a group representing fossil fuel industry interests, was leaked to the press.
It showed that the coalition's own scientific experts had advised it in 1995 that "[t]he scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO₂ on climate is well established and cannot be denied". Nevertheless, the organisation proceeded to deny climate science and promote the benefits of fossil fuel emissions.

Ideology: the other half of an "unholy alliance"
However, to focus solely on industry's role in climate science denial misses half the picture. The other significant player is political ideology. At an individual level, numerous surveys (such as here, here and and here) have found that political ideology is the biggest predictor of climate science denial.
People who fear the solutions to climate change, such as increased regulation of industry, are more likely to deny that there is a problem in the first place – what psychologists call "motivated disbelief".
Consequently, groups promoting political ideology that opposes market regulation have been prolific sources of misinformation about climate change. This productivity has been enabled by the many millions of dollars flowing from the fossil fuel industry. Naomi Oreskes, co-author of Merchants of Doubt, refers to this partnership between vested interests and ideological groups as an "unholy alliance".

Reducing the influence
To reduce the influence of climate science denial, we need to understand it. This requires awareness of both the role of political ideology and the support that ideological groups have received from vested interests.
Without this understanding, it's possible to make potentially inaccurate accusations such as climate denial being purely motivated by money, or that it is intentionally deceptive. Psychological research tells us that ideologically driven confirmation bias (misinformation) is almost indistinguishable from intentional deception (disinformation).

Video from free online course Making Sense of Climate Science Denial (launches August 9).

The fossil fuel industry has played a hugely damaging role in promoting misinformation about climate change. But without the broader picture including the role of political ideology, one can build an incomplete picture of climate science denial, leading to potentially counterproductive responses.

Links

• Exxon climate revelations are just part of a long history of science misinformation
• Is misinformation about the climate criminally negligent?
• The science for climate change only feeds the denial: how do you beat that?
• Future Fund drops tobacco: should fossil fuels be next?

Heat Stress To Wipe Billions Off GDP In India, China

Climate Home - Paul Brown

Scientific reports warn that people are already dying and economies being hit by climate change − and that the dangers are growing

Pixabay

The massive economic and health losses that climate change is already causing across the world are detailed in six scientific papers published today. Perhaps most striking is the warning about large productivity losses already being experienced due to heat stress, which can already be calculated for 43 countries.
The paper estimates that in South-East Asia alone "as much as 15% to 20% of annual work hours may already be lost in heat-exposed jobs".
And that figure may double by 2030 as the planet continues warming − with poor manual labourers who work outdoors being the worst affected.
The release of the papers coincides with the start of a conference on disaster risk reduction, held in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, and jointly sponsored by the International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) and the UN Development Programme.
The aim is to alert delegates to the already pressing scale of the problem and the need to take measures to protect the health of people, and to outline the economic costs of not taking action.
In an introduction to the six-paper collection, UNU-IIGH research fellows Jamal Hisham Hashim and José Siri write that humanity faces "substantial health risks from the degradation of the natural life support systems which are critical for human survival.
It has become increasingly apparent that actions to mitigate environmental change have powerful co-benefits for health."

Health risks
The author of the paper on heat stress, Tord Kjellstrom, director of the New Zealand-based Health and Environment International Trust, says: "Current climate conditions in tropical and subtropical parts of the world are already so hot during the hot seasons that occupational health effects occur and work capacity for many people is affected."
The worst area for this is problem is South-East Asia, with Malaysia being typical. In 2010, the country was already losing 2.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) because of people slowing or stopping work because of the heat.
By 2030, this will rise to 5.9% − knocking $95 billion dollars off the value of the economy.
The most susceptible jobs include the lowest paid − heavy labour and low-skill agricultural and manufacturing. Even so, the global economic cost of reduced productivity may be more than US $2 trillion by 2030.
India and China are two of the worst affected economies. By 2030, the annual GDP losses could total $450 billion, although mitigation may be made possible by a major shift in working hours, which is among several measures employers will need to take to reduce losses.
The list of 47 countries includes many in the hottest parts of the world, but countries in Europe − among them, Germany and the UK − are also on the list, along with the US.
One of the side-effects of this increased heat is the demand for cooling, which is placing a major strain on electricity infrastructure. Dr  Kjellstrom notes that the additional energy needed for a single city the size of Bangkok for each 1°C increase of average ambient temperature can be as much as 2,000 MW, which is more than the output of a major power plant.
The rising demand for cooling also contributes to warming the world. Air conditioners not only pump heat out directly, the electricity required is typically produced by burning fossil fuels, adding to atmospheric greenhouse gases.
People acclimatised to air conditioning also become less heat tolerant, further increasing demand for cooling. But heat stress is only one of the problems addressed by the papers.
From 1980 to 2012, roughly 2.1 million people worldwide died as a direct result of nearly 21,000 natural catastrophes, such as floods, mudslides, drought, high winds or fires.
The number of people being exposed to disasters has increased dramatically – in cyclone-prone areas, the population has grown in 40 years from 72 million to 121 million.
The papers also say: "Disastrously heavy rains can expand insect breeding sites, drive rodents from their burrows, and contaminate freshwater resources, leading to the spread of disease and compromising safe drinking water supplies.
"Warmer temperatures often promote the spread of mosquito-borne parasitic and viral diseases by shifting the vectors' geographic range and shortening the pathogen incubation period.

Combination of disasters
"Climate change can worsen air quality by triggering fires and dust storms and promoting certain chemical reactions causing respiratory illness and other health problems.
They say that central and south China can anticipate the highest number of casualties from this combination of disasters that will befall them as a result of continuing climate change. This knowledge may help to explain why China has been so pro-active in tackling global warning in the last year.
The authors underline the fact that fast-rising numbers of people are being exposed to the impacts of climate change, with much of the increase occurring in cities in flood-prone coastal areas or on hills susceptible to mudslides or landslides. Especially vulnerable are people living in poverty, including about one billion in slums.
Urban planners, the authors say, can help by designing cities "in ways that enhance health, sustainability, and resilience all at once" – for example, by incorporating better building design, facilitating a shift to renewable energy, and fostering the protection and expansion of tree cover, wetlands and other carbon sinks.
The delegates at the conference will be discussing ways to better prepare for and create warning systems to improve disaster response. They will also be recommended to take steps to reduce casualties by enhancing drainage to reduce flood risks and by strengthening healthcare, especially in poor areas.

Links

• India heat wave kills 1,500 in taste of climate change impacts
• Manhattan's climate change "killing season" to grow
• Climate change linked to doubling of Stockholm heat-related deaths
• German heart disease deaths from heatwaves to rise fivefold
• Ban Ki-moon calls on world to unite behind Paris climate deal

Hottest Ever June Marks 14th Month Of Record-Breaking Temperatures

The Guardian - Michael Slezak

US agencies Nasa and Noaa say last month was 0.9C hotter than the 20th century average and the hottest June since records began in 1880

Nasa image shows sea ice across the Arctic Ocean shrinking to below-average levels this summer. Photograph: Nasa/AFP/Getty Images

As the string of record-breaking global temperatures continues unabated, June 2016 marks the 14th consecutive month of record-breaking heat.
According to two US agencies – Nasa and Noaa – June 2016 was 0.9C hotter than the average for the 20th century, and the hottest June in the record which goes back to 1880. It broke the previous record, set in 2015, by 0.02C.
The 14-month streak of record-breaking temperatures was the longest in the 137-year record. And it has been 40 years since the world saw a June that was below the 20th century average.
The string of record-breaking monthly temperatures began in April 2015, and was pushed along by a powerful El Niño, where a splurge of warm water spreads across the Pacific Ocean.
But the effects of El Niño have receded, and the effects of global warming are clear, said Nasa's Gavin Schmidt.
"While the El Niño event in the tropical Pacific this winter gave a boost to global temperatures from October onwards, it is the underlying trend which is producing these record numbers," he said.
Nasa's Walt Meir said the global temperatures have been exacerbated by extreme temperatures over the Arctic. Warm temperatures there are pushing up the global average, as well a causing record-low amounts of sea ice.
"It has been a record year so far for global temperatures, but the record high temperatures in the Arctic over the past six months have been even more extreme," Meier said. "This warmth as well as unusual weather patterns have led to the record-low sea ice extents so far this year."

Links

• Analysis What would a global warming increase of 1.5C be like?
• Arctic sea ice extent breaks record low for winter
• Arctic sea ice crashes to record low for June
• Arctic sea ice fell to record low for May
• Record high Arctic temperatures in 2015 having 'profound effects' on region
• rctic sea ice extent hits record low for winter maximum
• Satellite eye on Earth: April 2013 – in pictures
• Smoke from Arctic wildfires may have caused Greenland's record thaw
• Arctic ice shrinks 18% against record, sounding climate change alarm bells
• Summer storm spins over the Arctic - big picture

Climate Policy Needs A New Lens: Health And Well-Being

The Conversation - Fiona Armstrong | Peter C. Doherty

Successive governments have ignored the health risks of climate change. Reuters/Daniel Munoz

As the new Australian parliament takes the reins, health groups are moving to ensure that health minister Sussan Ley addresses a major health threat in this term of government: climate change.
Largely ignored by successive federal governments, the health risks from climate change are increasingly urgent. One or two degrees of warming at a global level may not sound like much, but if you take many organisms (including humans) too far outside their comfort zone, the consequences are deadly.
The Climate and Health Alliance – a coalition of concerned health groups, researchers, academics and professional associations – is calling on the Australian government to develop a national strategy for climate, health and well-being.

How climate change affects health
Major increases in ill-health are anticipated from continued climate change. These include:

• greater rates of injuries, disease and deaths associated with more intense heatwaves, fires and other extreme weather events;
• increased risks of infectious and food- and water-borne diseases;
• health consequences arising from lost work capacity because of extreme weather;
• harmful effects on community mental health; and
• increasing air pollution.

World Health Organisation

In February 2009, by which time global average temperatures had increased by less than one degree, Victoria experienced temperatures between 12-15 degrees above the average. That single heatwave caused the devastating Black Saturday bushfires. It was also responsible for a 62% increase in deaths, from both direct heat-related illnesses and the exacerbation of other chronic medical conditions.
During this five-day event, ambulances had a 46% increase in demand. Emergency departments experienced an eightfold increase in heat-related presentations, a 2.8-fold increase in cardiac arrests, and a threefold increase in patients dead on arrival.
Heat doesn't just affect the very old and very young. A recent international report shows that a billion workers globally are being exposed to extreme heat. This reduces productivity and puts lives at risk.
Global warming is also causing dramatic ecosystem collapse, such as the loss of corals on the Great Barrier Reef, and the recent death of thousands of hectares of mangroves in northern Australia. These will impact on fish stocks and food supply – and therefore, adequate nutrition – for communities that depend on these resources.

Preparing the health sector for climate change
Federal policymakers in Australia have failed recognise the health threat of climate change or offer robust and effective national policy solutions to tackle it. Governments in the United Kingdom and the United States, in contrast, are helping communities prepare for climate change. They are also investing in measures to promote climate resilience in the healthcare sector.
Like all services, the health sector is vulnerable to the direct consequences of extreme weather events such as fires, floods, heatwaves, and storms. These events can disrupt supply chains, electricity services, and water supplies; compromise the safety and quality of food services; suddenly and dramatically increase service demand; and interfere with service delivery through adverse impacts on personnel.

High-emissions activities such as burning coal for energy produce harmful air pollution. www.shutterstock.com

When Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012, many hospitals were forced to evacuate because of flooding; others were unable to function. Many lost electrical power, and some had back-up generators that failed due to flooding. Subsequent investigations reveal a lack of climate preparedness in the healthcare system.
A case study of multiple hospital evacuations during the event revealed that the health system experienced prolonged increased patient volume, displaced staff, and disrupted telecommunications. This created chaos as evacuated patients were transferred with little accompanying information about their diagnosis or required care.
The Climate and Health Alliance has proposed a national healthcare standard for "climate resilience", to ensure the Australian healthcare sector and its workforce are adequately prepared for climate-related health threats.

Time for policy commitment
As well as the obvious national interest, there is now an obligation under the Paris climate agreement for nations to consider their citizens' "right to health" in the context of climate policy. There is also an obligation to ensure that the health benefits from climate mitigation are reflected in climate policy choices.
These benefits are potentially huge. A recent US study estimated the savings on healthcare spending from carbon-reduction policies can be more than ten times the cost of policy implementation.
While there is strong evidence emerging in the international literature about the health benefits from strategies to cut emissions, that work is yet to be done in Australia.
As a signatory of the Paris Agreement, the Australian government must now apply a "health lens" to all of its climate policies. The Climate and Health Alliance is today calling for Australia to develop a national strategy for climate, health and well-being, which would allow Australia to:

• adequately respond to the risks to health from climate change;
• support the health sector to build climate resilience and transition to low-carbon operations;
• promote education and awareness about climate change and health among the health professions and the wider community, so both can be better prepared;
• strengthen climate and health research to identify population groups and communities particularly vulnerable to health risks from climate change and develop strategies to reduce those risks; and
• invest in research to quantify the health benefits of different emissions-reduction scenarios to guide climate policy choices.

Current Australian carbon reduction commitments are inadequate to limit global warming to a safe level, and climate policies do not reflect the risks or opportunities for health. Lives are being put at risk.
We need a coordinated national response, with leadership from the health minister, but involving all portfolios, to protect the health of all people in Australia from climate change.

Links

• Climate and Health Alliance
• Federal Election: Australia re-elects Coalition – with no national climate and health policies
• Australian health groups join global call on G7 nations to phase out coal
• Unprecedented alliance calls for zero pollution in Australia
• Climate mitigation – the greatest public health opportunity of our time
• Why climate change should be a key health issue this election
• Updating the state of Australia's climate

Global Warming Set To Cost The World Economy £1.5 Trillion By 2030 As It Becomes Too Hot To Work

The Independent - Ian Johnston

'If you are physically active in work, the hotter it is, the slower you work'

Extreme heat can be fatal, particularly to young and elderly people, but it also causes everyone to slow down, meaning they cannot work as hard AP

Global warming will cost the world economy more than £1.5 trillion a year in lost productivity by 2030 as it becomes too hot to work in many jobs, according to a major new report.
In just 14 years' time in India, where some jobs are already shared by two people to allow regular breaks from the heat, the bill will be £340bn a year.
China is predicted to experience similar losses, while other countries among the worst affected include Indonesia (£188bn), Malaysia (£188bn) and Thailand (£113bn).
The figures were published in a research paper launched at a forum on how to reduce the risks of severe weather events held in Kuala Lumpur by the United Nations University and UN Development Programme.
Other papers highlighted the risk of increasingly heavy rain helping to spread diseases by expanding insect-breeding sites, driving rodents from their burrows and contaminating freshwater supplies; a decline in air quality caused by fires and dust storms; and more floods, mudslides, drought and high winds.
Dr Tord Kjellstrom, author of the paper on the effect of 'heat stress' on the economy, told The Independent: "The effect of heat on people's daily lives and particular on their work has not been given enough attention.
"If you are physically active in work, the hotter it is, the slower you work. Your body adapts to the heat and in doing that it protects you from the heat.
"For individual countries, even within a short timespan, the losses due to the increasing heat can be in the many billions."
Dr Kjellstrom, of the Health and Environment International Trust in New Zealand, said the increases in temperature until about 2050 were already inevitable.

Ludovico Einaudi plays the piano as Arctic melts around him

However he said reducing emissions now could still have a significant impact after that date.
"Beyond 2050, it will make a big difference if we take action now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally," Dr Kjellstrom said.
However he said some countries appeared to be planning simply to cope with the coming changes, rather than try to prevent them.
"A lot of countries have focussed in the last few years on adaptation with the impression that we can find methods to adjust to the future changes in climate … and protect people and protect our societies," he said.
"I think personally that the need for mitigation, which means to reduce climate change, has not been given enough focus.
"It's quite urgent because the action needs to be taken now, not 40 years from now."
The Paris climate summit last year was hailed as a success with countries committing to keep the amount of warming as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels as possible. The world has already seen nearly 1C of warming.
However the effect of the actions promised by individual states could allow a rise of 3.1C by 2100.
Anthony Capon, director of the UN University's International Institute for Global Health, said he hoped the research presented at the forum would "help improve understanding … of the threat climate change poses to hard-won advances in human health worldwide".
"It is not clear yet whether considerations of health and sustainability will overrule the press of economic progress in coming decades, and ethical considerations surrounding the right to development are thorny indeed," he said.
"Decisions made today will have a profound impact on health around the world for many decades to come."
In an introduction to the papers, published in a special edition of the Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, Professor Jamal Hashim and Dr José Siri, both of the UN University, wrote that humanity was facing "substantial health risks from the degradation of the natural life support systems which are critical for human survival".
But they added: "It has become increasingly apparent that actions to mitigate environmental change have powerful co-benefits for health."
Professor Jamal said the Asia-Pacific region was already seeing more extreme weather events, as predicted by models of climate change.
"It doesn't look like carbon emissions will reduce significantly in the near future too we may be talking about a further increase in global temperature," he said.
"I think we will be seeing more and more of this [extreme storms]. How severe and how extreme is anybody's guess, but we have to be prepared."
However Professor Jamal added that there were some reasons for optimism.
"I think there's less argument now about whether there actually is climate change," he said.
"At last we are over the stage of quarrelling about whether there actually is climate change."

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