Upper Ocean Temperatures Set a New High Record in 2020

CLIMATE CRISIS 

Climate and Capitalism | January 14, 2021

Heat content change in the upper 2000 meters of the global ocean. (Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, January 2021)

Even with the Covid-19-related small dip in global carbon emissions due to limited travel and other activities, the ocean temperatures continued a trend of breaking records in 2020. A new study by 20 scientists from 13 institutes around the world, reported the highest ocean temperatures since 1955 from surface level to a depth of 2,000 meters.

Projections of Excess Mortality Related to Diurnal Temperature Range Under Climate Change Scenarios: A Multi-country Modelling Study

CLIMATE CRISIS AND LIFE

Whanhee Lee, PhD, Yoonhee Kim, PhD, Francesco Sera, MSc, Prof Antonio Gasparrini, PhD, Prof Rokjin Park, PhD, Hayon Michelle Choi, MSc, Kristi Prifti, MPH, Prof Michelle L Bell, PhD, Rosana Abrutzky, PhD, Prof Yuming Guo, PhD, Prof Shilu Tong, PhD, Micheline de Sousa Zanotti Stagliorio Coelho, PhD, Prof Paulo Hilario Nascimento Saldiva, PhD, Prof Eric Lavigne, PhD, Hans Orru, PhD, Ene Indermitte, PhD, Prof Jouni J K Jaakkola, PhD, Niilo R I Ryti, PhD, Mathilde Pascal, PhD, Prof Patrick Goodman, PhD, Ariana Zeka, ScD, Prof Masahiro Hashizume, PhD, Prof Yasushi Honda, PhD, Prof Magali Hurtado Diaz, PhD, Julio César Cruz, MSc, Ala Overcenco, PhD, Prof Baltazar Nunes, PhD, Joana Madureira, PhD, Noah Scovronick, PhD, Fiorella Acquaotta, PhD, Aurelio Tobias, PhD, Ana Maria Vicedo-Cabrera, PhD, Martina S Ragettli, PhD, Prof Yue-Liang Leon Guo, PhD, Bing-Yu Chen, PhD, Shanshan Li, PhD, Prof Ben Armstrong, PhD, Antonella Zanobetti, PhD, Prof Joel Schwartz, PhD, Prof Ho Kim, PhD

Lancet | November, 2020

Open Access | Published: November, 2020 | DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30222-9

Summary

Background

Various retrospective studies have reported on the increase of mortality risk due to higher diurnal temperature range (DTR). This study projects the effect of DTR on future mortality across 445 communities in 20 countries and regions.

Methods

DTR-related mortality risk was estimated on the basis of the historical daily time-series of mortality and weather factors from Jan 1, 1985, to Dec 31, 2015, with data for 445 communities across 20 countries and regions, from the Multi-Country Multi-City Collaborative Research Network. We obtained daily projected temperature series associated with four climate change scenarios, using the four representative concentration pathways (RCPs) described by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, from the lowest to the highest emission scenarios (RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, RCP 6.0, and RCP 8.5). Excess deaths attributable to the DTR during the current (1985–2015) and future (2020–99) periods were projected using daily DTR series under the four scenarios. Future excess deaths were calculated on the basis of assumptions that warmer long-term average temperatures affect or do not affect the DTR-related mortality risk.

Boiling Siberia shows temperature swings may be increasing: Experts

by Akshit Sangomla

Down To Earth | June 23, 2020

Verkhoyansk in Siberia, shown here by the red dot, is usually known as one of the coldest towns in the world. Photo: Google Earth

Verkhoyansk, a town in Siberia, has recorded the highest temperature in the Arctic circle in the last 140 years at 38 degree celsius. This is around 18°C higher than the normal temperature for this time of the year for the place.

Even though the town is in the Guinness book of world records for the largest temperature range it experiences — from some -67 °C to some 37°C, this new record has an imprint of global warming and the impact of such warming can be witnessed even here in India.

“The new high shows temperature swings may be increasing,” Raghu Murtugudde, a climate scientist at the University of Maryland, said.

South Asia battered by extreme heat wave: 300 die in India and 21 in Thailand: Hottest month still ahead

A Journal of People report

Ongoing heat wave has so far taken 300 lives in India and 21 lives in Thailand as a roasting heat wave has been ripping through much of the South and South East Asia regions since early-April. The regions have been setting temperature records. Hundreds of people suffered severe heat strokes in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.