Flux continu

Human-caused climate crisis brought soaring temperatures across Asia, from Gaza to Delhi to Manila

Europe is no exception when it comes to the consequences of climate change. It is the fastest warming continent, with temperatures rising at around twice the global average rate.

Climate scientists have told the Guardian they expect catastrophic levels of global heating. Here’s what that would mean for the planet

Heatwaves, wildfires and floods are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, leading climate scientists say

Human-caused climate disruption and El Niño push temperature in mountains to 37C

Antarctica’s sea ice levels are plummeting as extreme weather events happen faster than scientists predicted

After hottest day ever, researchers say global heating may mean future of crop failures on land and ‘silent dying’ in the oceans

Three brush fires burning in rural areas across Riverside county, where 1,000 homes are under evacuation orders

Mexico and the Caribbean are experiencing the most intense heatwave in their recorded history. The Mexican Plateau is being seared by harsh dry heat, while the Caribbean contends with deadly humid temperatures. On June 12, 2023, the mercury soared above 45 °C (113 °F) in several areas, including regions of high altitude. The city of Torreón, sitting at 1 123 m (3 684 feet) above sea level, saw temperatures rise to 43.3 °C (109.94 °F) on June 12, while Durango Airport, located at 1 872 m (6 142 feet) altitude, experienced 40.4 °C (104.72 °F) heat. La Bufa, perched even higher at 2 612 m (8 570 feet) above sea level, broke all-time records with a temperature of 33.4 °C (92.12 °F).

Abstract. The summer of 2022 was memorable and record-breaking, ranking as the second hottest summer in France since 1900, with a seasonal surface air temperature average of 22.7 ∘C. In particular, France experienced multiple record-breaking heatwaves during the meteorological summer. As the main heat reservoir of the Earth system, the oceans are at the forefront of events of this magnitude which enhance oceanic disturbances such as marine heatwaves (MHWs). In this study, we investigate the sea surface temperature (SST) of French maritime basins using remotely sensed measurements to track the response of surface waters to the atmospheric heatwaves and determine the intensity of such feedback. Beyond the direct relationship between SSTs and surface air temperatures, we explore the leading atmospheric parameters affecting the upper-layer ocean heat budget. Despite some gaps in data availability, the SSTs measured during the meteorological summer of 2022 were record-breaking, the mean SST was between 1.3 and 2.6

Major fossil fuel entities and trade associations including Koch Industries, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Western States Petroleum Association, as well as consulting behemoth McKinsey & Company, were slapped with the latest climate liability lawsuit today with the filing of a complaint in the Oregon Circuit Court in Multnomah County, Oregon.

It’s not that our models can’t simulate small-scale weather – they’re basically the same models we use for weather forecasting – it’s just very computationally expensive to have them zoom in and run in “weather mode” to get a highly detailed simulation.

Soaring temperatures in subcontinent, which have caused widespread suffering, would be extraordinarily rare without global heating

The heat made the city’s roads buckle. Train rails warped, causing long commuter and freight delays. City workers watered bridges to prevent them from locking when the plates expanded. Children riding in school buses became so dehydrated and nauseous that they had to be hosed down by the Fire Department. Hundreds of young people were hospitalized with heat-related illnesses. But the elderly, and especially the elderly who lived alone, were most vulnerable to the heat wave....

Through this analysis of the heat wave Eric Klinenberg offers a loose model for sociologizing, and thereby denaturalizing, disasters that are generally constructed according to categories of common sense and classiffed in a vocabulary that effaces their social logic

The city council in Chicago refused to hold public hearings. Seven hundred and thirty-nine people died in a week. The city had totally bungled the policy response. Everyone's implicated. Next, the mayor organized his own commission. And what did they bury when they published the report? It did not have the words "heat wave" on the cover ... And there's a picture of a snowflake on the image of this report. You know, it was a report that was designed to hide everything inside of it....

Comprendre les 739 décès de juillet 1995 requiert ce que l’auteur appelle une « autopsie sociale », qui consiste, en suivant la métaphore organiciste, à disséquer les différents « organes sociaux de la ville et [à] identifier les conditions » (p. 64) qui ont conduit à la mort d’autant de personnes. Dans une veine résolument critique, il s’agit d’ébranler le « monopole de l’explication, de la définition et de la classification officielles des questions de vie et de mort » (p. 64) que détiennent les institutions politiques et médicales....

In the summer of 1995, Chicago experienced the deadliest heat wave in American history. Streets buckled, power grids failed, and when the heat finally broke, more than 700 people were dead. The questions of why so many people perished, and why their deaths were so easy to deny, ignore, or forget, preoccupied Eric Klinenberg. He uncovered unsettling forms of social breakdown – the isolation of seniors, the abandonment of poor neighborhoods, and the retrenchment of public assistance programs – which led him to write "Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago." Drawing on his experience as research director for the federal Rebuild By Design competition after Superstorm Sandy, he also discovered that global warming makes these issues all the more dangerous and argues that cities must adapt, or face worse incidents in the future.

In March, the north and south poles had record temperatures. In May in Delhi, it hit 49C. Last week in Madrid, 40C. Experts say the worst effects of the climate emergency cannot be avoided if emissions continue to rise

It’s not too late to avert the climate crisis from becoming even more deadly – but the window is closing