By AFP
August 1, 2024
China is the world's biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that scientists say are driving climate change and making extreme weather more frequent and intense - Copyright AFP GREG BAKER
Matthew WALSH
Chinese weather authorities said Thursday July was the country’s hottest month since records began six decades ago, as extreme temperatures persist across the globe.
China is the world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that scientists say are driving climate change and making extreme weather more frequent and intense.
Heatwaves this summer have scorched parts of northern China, while torrential rains have triggered floods and landslides in central and southern areas.
Last month was “the hottest July since complete observations began in 1961, and the hottest single month in the history of observation”, the national weather office said Thursday.
It said the average air temperature in China in July was 23.21 degrees Celsius (73.78 degrees Fahrenheit), exceeding the previous record of 23.17C (73.71F) in 2017.
The mean temperature in every province was also “higher than the average for previous years”, with the southwestern provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan logging their highest averages, the weather office said.
It forecast that the mercury would continue to climb in eastern regions this week, including Shanghai, where a red alert for extreme heat was in place on Thursday.
“Next week will be more of the same. It’s like being on an iron plate,” wrote one user of the Weibo social media platform in response to the megacity’s heat warning.
“It’s so hot. Did Shanghai do something to anger the gods?” quipped another.
The nearby city of Hangzhou may hit 43C (109F) on Saturday, which would break its all-time record, the weather office said.
Middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River would likely see daily temperatures fall no lower than 30C (86F), it said.
As a result, people “must not relax efforts to avoid the heat and keep cool”.
– Extreme summer –
The report came little more than a week after Earth experienced its warmest day in recorded history.
Preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service showed the daily global average temperature was 17.15C (62.9F) on July 22.
That was 0.06C hotter than the day before, which itself broke the all-time high temperature set a year earlier by a small margin.
China has pledged to bring emissions of carbon dioxide to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060, but has resisted calls to be bolder.
It long depended on highly polluting coal power to fuel its massive economy but has emerged as a renewable energy leader in recent years.
Research showed last month that China is building almost twice as much wind and solar energy capacity than every other country combined.
Extreme weather across large parts of the country has triggered deadly natural disasters in the past few weeks.
State media reported Tuesday that at least seven people had died after heavy rain and flooding hit central Hunan province.
The downpours have been caused by the remnants of Typhoon Gaemi, which made landfall in eastern China last week.
A landslide in Hunan on Sunday destroyed a guesthouse and killed 15 people, while nearly 4,000 residents were evacuated after a dam breach elsewhere in the province.
Chinese weather authorities said Thursday July was the country’s hottest month since records began six decades ago, as extreme temperatures persist across the globe.
China is the world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that scientists say are driving climate change and making extreme weather more frequent and intense.
Heatwaves this summer have scorched parts of northern China, while torrential rains have triggered floods and landslides in central and southern areas.
Last month was “the hottest July since complete observations began in 1961, and the hottest single month in the history of observation”, the national weather office said Thursday.
It said the average air temperature in China in July was 23.21 degrees Celsius (73.78 degrees Fahrenheit), exceeding the previous record of 23.17C (73.71F) in 2017.
The mean temperature in every province was also “higher than the average for previous years”, with the southwestern provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan logging their highest averages, the weather office said.
It forecast that the mercury would continue to climb in eastern regions this week, including Shanghai, where a red alert for extreme heat was in place on Thursday.
“Next week will be more of the same. It’s like being on an iron plate,” wrote one user of the Weibo social media platform in response to the megacity’s heat warning.
“It’s so hot. Did Shanghai do something to anger the gods?” quipped another.
The nearby city of Hangzhou may hit 43C (109F) on Saturday, which would break its all-time record, the weather office said.
Middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River would likely see daily temperatures fall no lower than 30C (86F), it said.
As a result, people “must not relax efforts to avoid the heat and keep cool”.
– Extreme summer –
The report came little more than a week after Earth experienced its warmest day in recorded history.
Preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service showed the daily global average temperature was 17.15C (62.9F) on July 22.
That was 0.06C hotter than the day before, which itself broke the all-time high temperature set a year earlier by a small margin.
China has pledged to bring emissions of carbon dioxide to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060, but has resisted calls to be bolder.
It long depended on highly polluting coal power to fuel its massive economy but has emerged as a renewable energy leader in recent years.
Research showed last month that China is building almost twice as much wind and solar energy capacity than every other country combined.
Extreme weather across large parts of the country has triggered deadly natural disasters in the past few weeks.
State media reported Tuesday that at least seven people had died after heavy rain and flooding hit central Hunan province.
The downpours have been caused by the remnants of Typhoon Gaemi, which made landfall in eastern China last week.
A landslide in Hunan on Sunday destroyed a guesthouse and killed 15 people, while nearly 4,000 residents were evacuated after a dam breach elsewhere in the province.
Mediterranean heatwave 'virtually impossible' without climate change: scientists
Agence France-Presse
July 31, 2024
Scientists from the World Weather Attribution group say the heatwave that hit countries around the Mediterranean in July would have been up to 3.3 degrees Celsius cooler in a world without climate change (FADEL SENNA/AFP)
The punishing heat experienced around the Mediterranean in July would have been "virtually impossible" in a world without global warming, a group of climate scientists said Wednesday.
A deadly heatwave brought temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) to southern Europe and North Africa, where such extreme summer spells are becoming more frequent.
Scorching heat claimed more than 20 lives in a single day in Morocco, fanned wildfires in Greece and the Balkans, and strained athletes competing across France in the Summer Olympic Games.
World Weather Attribution, a network of scientists who have pioneered peer-reviewed methods for assessing the possible role of climate change in specific extreme events, said this case was clear.
"The extreme temperatures reached in July would have been virtually impossible if humans had not warmed the planet by burning fossil fuels," according to the WWA report by five researchers.
The analysis looked at the average July temperature and focused on a region that included Morocco, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece.
Scientists used this and other climate data to assess how the heat in July compared to similar periods in a world before humanity began rapidly burning oil, coal and gas.
They concluded the heat recorded in Europe was up to 3.3C hotter because of climate change.
Beyond the Mediterranean, intense heat reached Paris this week where athletes competing in the Olympic Games withered as temperatures hit the mid-30s this week.
"Extremely hot July months are no longer rare events," said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, a co-author of the study.
"In today's climate... Julys with extreme heat can be expected about once a decade," she said.
Scientists have long established that climate change is driving extreme weather and making heatwaves longer, hotter and more frequent.
This latest episode came in a month when global temperatures soared to their highest levels on record, with the four hottest days ever observed by scientists etched into the history books in July.
The past 13 months have been the warmest such period on record, exceeding a 1.5C limit that scientists say must be kept intact over the long term to avoid catastrophic climate change.
No comments:
Post a Comment