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A Third Of the Planet's Population Is Exposed To Deadly Heatwaves (motherjones.com)

Posted by msmash on from the sad-state-of-affairs dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Nearly a third of the world's population is now exposed to climatic conditions that produce deadly heatwaves, as the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere makes it "almost inevitable" that vast areas of the planet will face rising fatalities from high temperatures, new research has found. Climate change has escalated the heatwave risk across the globe, the study states, with nearly half of the world's population set to suffer periods of deadly heat by the end of the century even if greenhouse gases are radically cut. "For heatwaves, our options are now between bad or terrible," said Camilo Mora, an academic at the University of Hawaii and lead author of the study. High temperatures are currently baking large swaths of the south-western US, with the National Weather Service (NWS) issuing an excessive heat warning for Phoenix, Arizona, which is set to reach 119F (48.3C) on Monday. The heat warning extends across much of Arizona and up through the heart of California, with Palm Springs forecast a toasty 116F (46.6C) on Monday and Sacramento set to reach 107F (41.6C).

7 of 273 comments (clear)

  1. Real, but by XXongo · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Human-induced climate change is real... but this article is alarmism.

    A hint: please don't use Mother Jones as a source for science information.

    1. Re:Real, but by qbast · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Guardian is pretty good source for news, however their opinion pieces are very often batshit insane.

    2. Re:Real, but by hey! · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here's a pro tip: look up the result in other sources using google, find a more useful source that tells you things like the name of the journal the research was published in.

      In this case it was Nature Climate Change, a relatively new offshoot of the prestigious journal Nature. Nature Climate Change was established in 2011, but by last year ut gad achieved an impact factor of over 19, making it the most cited journal in its field. This doesn't mean it's infallible, but it means it doesn't have to scrape the bottom of the research barrel to fill its pages. This paper may be right or it may be wrong, but it's pretty much guaranteed not to be garbage.

      Knowing the journal name makes it trivial to find the original paper, or at least the abstract.

      Still it is never possible to know the significance of a paper or a study in the short term. You have to wait until it is cited in a review paper, which will summarize all the supporting and conflicting results that followed any particular piece of research. You should never make a life decision (change what you eat) or policy decision based on any single paper until it has been cited and characterized as sound in a review paper published in a high impact factor journal.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  2. Baseline figure for this prediction by MrMr · · Score: 5, Informative

    https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/...

  3. We live in the tropics or subtropics by xanthines-R-yummy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Considering most of the globe lives either the tropics or the subtropics, this is probably only going to get worse, especially as the temperate zones become more and more tropical.

  4. Some alternate sources by XXongo · · Score: 5, Informative
    Some sources that are not "Mother Jones":

    Abstract of the original article: https://www.nature.com/nclimat...
    Press release from Nature East Asia: http://www.natureasia.com/en/r...
    Press release from U. Hawaii Manoa (the institution of the lead authors): http://www.hawaii.edu/news/201...
    Article at phys.org: https://phys.org/news/2017-06-...
    Article at Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/r...

    Interactive map of number of deadly heat days: https://maps.esri.com/globalri...

  5. Today It's just weather.. and a bit of Irony. by dschnur · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've lived in Phoenix most of my life. My family has been in Arizona since the 1930's. It's the summer now, it's hot.

    Late June has always been the hottest part of the year in the southern desert. The high today is well within the curve we expect this time of year. Insane hot? Yes. Atypical, no. Fun watching some unlucky Weather Channel reporter standing outside in the sun saying "Yep it's hot." We try not to do that ourselves.

    However:

    Yearly average temperatures are hotter than before. It's getting hot earlier in the year and staying hot until much later in the year. It's not attention-grabbing enough to say that it didn't drop below freezing for the past two years in Phoenix, but that is significant. It's just significant in a way that has more to do with microclimate, rather than macroclimate.

    Over the years, Phoenix has grown. It's now the 5th largest city in the US. Phoenix also has many satellite cities. Some of them are major cities in their own right. For example, Mesa by it's self is slightly bigger than Atlanta GA. What that means is lots of concrete, paved roads, and air conditioning. All produce or retain heat. Phoenix has developed an urban "Heat Island," which repels rain storms and makes the city even hotter.

    In other words, the Temperature in Phoenix today is NOT a valid indicator of global climate.

    Now, let's go two hours North of Phoenix to Sedona and Flagstaff. Those smaller cities are in forested areas which are drier and slightly warmer than before. It's easy to see large swaths of dead trees in the forests caused by the stresses of longer-term changes in climate (and poor forest management.)

    Now for the irony:
    Most voters in Arizona take it in faith that what they are told by their political party is correct. Arizona is also strongly Republican. See where I'm heading? Strange if you think of it. Perhaps it's the heat?

      -D