The world on heat: a web guide

The colossal, unpleasant heat of the last week has by no means restricted to London's underground carriages — which reached a cooking 47C (117F).

From San Francisco to Siberia, high temperatures have been melting electricity equipment, starting forest fires and killing people. The heat waves have coincided with a series of studies of global warming, none of which are optimistic.

In California and New York, the heat has conspired to knock out the power in houses and hospitals desperate for cool. The Los Angeles Times reports today that 175,000 homes lost power over the weekend as the mercury hit 108F (42.2C). At least three deaths in California have been blamed on the heat. The US National Weather Service has issued an Excessive Heat Warning.

In Queens, New York's hectic, polyglot borough, a blackout affecting 100,000 people has lasted an entire week, forcing families to sleep in their cars, outside, anywhere: “You feel immobilized. You are losing what’s left of your sanity," one resident told The New York Times, which has photographs of the discomfort.

The heat in Britain, which broke all records for July, cost the country £168 million in lost work and wandering, sweat-filled minds everyday last week, according to one report today. The forecast is for more warmth, softened by showers and thunderstorms.

In France, surgeons are threatening to strike as temperatures touch the levels of 2003, when more than 15,000 people died in a heatwave. The country's nuclear power stations are already having to dump extra-hot water into the country's rivers to keep the plants cool.

The forests of Siberia, also known as the lungs of Europe, are suffering another year of devastating fires. Scientists studying the outbreaks in Russia and California are now convinced that global warming, characterised by shorter winters and early thaws, is making the problem worse and worse. Even the Amazon rainforest is now thought to be at risk.

In Austria, Alois Ranalter, a maintenance worker, is fighting back, laying construction felt on the Stubai glacier to slow its yearly melt. His story is reported in Arizona, where three people died from the heat over the weekend.

Elsewhere, the weak, still air above the Pacific is affecting the ocean's food chain, disrupting the flow of fish and food to birds on west coast of North America. "How many years in a row do you see this before you start raising your eyebrows?"

Worldwide, hot seas are raising the likelihood of troublesome methane bursts and even in New Zealand, which is suffering a bitter winter, people are asking whether the heat is somehow to blame.

Comments

[Jeffrey S.]

I moved to Minnesota in the northern US 10 years ago. Each winter seems warmer than the last. The ice is in later and out earlier. The snowshoe races have been canceled 3 of the last five years. :-(

[J]

Living in Canada, I've yet to see a winter like the ones from when I was a kid.

It used to start snowing as early as late October and wouldn't stop until late March or sometimes early April. It would be normal for the snow to pile up 12" or more. Often more.

Winters have become dramatically milder every year for the past 7 or 8 years now. It mostly rains now instead. It only really snows for a couple weeks at a time from late December till February.

Then I see pictures of Mount Killamanjaro with no snow on it. Valleys that used to be engulfed by a glacier that are now filled with a small lake. Pictures of the mudslides in northern Canada that used to be permafrost.

I think it's safe to say that it's too late. With over 6 billion people in the world -- the amount of pollution generated every single hour is nigh-incalculable. The time to disseminate the ideological changes necessary for us to all be environmentally conscious would take decades. Maybe even a century.

What I think we have to focus on now is reducing those emissions as fast as possible, preparing technology for living in a hostile environment, and getting ready for the mass-migration of people to higher elevations. We're also going to have to be cautious about the vast amount of communcations infrastructure we might lose when large tracts of land is lost to rising sea levels.

The Internet is able to withstand disaster fairly well, but how much of it is sitting up higher than 500m above sea level or more?

[Cowicide]

Meanwhile, the USA has a horrific president who appoints people from the oil industry who lie to the American people about this grave threat to humanity. Evil is amongst us. Bush will go down in history as far more destructive than even Hitler was.

[Theodora Michaels]

Yes, the world is obviously changing. Will people be willing to change their ways? Even if everyone does, will it make a difference? I am hoping, but not very optimistic. Perhaps oddly, I don't feel bad for us humans as we brought this on ourselves, but I grieve for the other species we have doomed.

Yet I don't think it's fair to pin the blame solely on the world's current human inhabitants. This situation was set in motion at the dawn of the industrial age, if not earlier. We (especially Americans) have been lulled into a false sense of security and entitlement. Those ignorant of matters outside their own neighborhoods will be getting more and more nasty shocks in future years. It makes me sad.

[Dontpanic]

Would everyone stop yabbering on about global warming and start preparing for things which are beyond our control and were never in our control in the first place. Climate change happens, get over it, the greenhouse effect is one of the big reasons why we can live here.

In an emergency it will be your neighbour who helps so we should focus more on that side of things.

[Jeffrey Schoneman]

Save us, Al Gore! Save us, please! We should have listened to you when we still had a chance. Now we are going to get what we deserve. Oh, Al Gore!

[Lisa]

Its all ok. We were too stupid to take care of our planet. Were killing off all the beautiful animals and pristine forests and the population and polititions didn't care. Now we will kill ourselves off. Let the bugs have a turn since we couldn't do it.
luv
lisa

[Annette Tait]

I have recycled for decades, I have always been environmentally respectful and aware. I grew up in Africa and Australia. Upon coming to live in Scotland 10 years ago I was and still am amazed by the ignorance and laziness of people here to do simple acts of selflessness. The government here does nothing to make people 'proud' of their environment - don't pollute, don't rubbish, recycle etc etc. Very sad indeed. And everyone is 'surprised' by global warming!

[Gerry]

A disaster, but the worse is not here, yet...soon to come. We are slaughtering our planet and moan after because it is too hot!
So much hypocrisy, so much greed, so much lies...we will be extinct one day, humans are too stupid to survive. Or stop it right now!

[Andrew Collins]

There is only one long term solution to global warming and most of the other world problems - we need to reduce the number of human beings on the planet. Someone should work out how may people can live in harmony with nature and governments should start to work out how to achieve this goal.

[Michelle Matarrese]

I live in "America's Finest City", San Diego, California, U.S.A. We are slowly being broiled what with this intense heat and WARM winds from the Pacific, and forest fires from the east.
Time to hit the pool.

[Karen Holland]

I live near the beach in Southern California and I don't remember a hotter June and July that we've had this year. June is generally overcase and cool but we set new records this year and have continued to set them in July. I'm not using any A/C but do have all my windows open and the ceiling fans going.

When I bought a new car last month I bought an hybrid and am very pleased with it. It should get 45 to 50 MPG and I can drive in the car pool lane by myself!

[Kevin Magee]

I've worked construction outdoors in Colorado for the last 25 years and the winter work is no longer something to be dreaded. For the past 10-12 years each winter seems to be milder than the last.

[marcelina]

I'm in NJ, (USA) this heat is unbearable. Flickering power because of overloaded transformers? This land of pollution and concrete humans want to cover the globe has to end. New Jersey is disgusting as it is... now the spoiling sewage and garbage fills the smogged air with a vengence. I don't care about tourism, economics... I care about this planet and the animals that we are killing because no one can make changes in their lifestyle. Come on! YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT LIVES HERE!

[Jessica]

I live in upstate NY, USA and we haven't had a nice white Christmas in ages. I hope we'll get some snow this year but I doubt it. :-/

[ted]

i live in the tropics, and this rain season has been brutal. something is happening to the earth, probably a change of patterns in weather, because our winters were like this 20 years ago.

weather has been cold and rainy, we didn't get that in the last 10 years.

[K. Johansen]

"How many years in a row do you see this before you start raising your eyebrows?"

How many 'years in a row' do you 'raise your eyebrows' before you do something more than that? These are the real news. They really should be all over the front pages.

They are much more serious than even bad news about bombings, war etc.

How many 'years in a row' before the newsmedia realize that?

[Steven Mitchell]

Well folks we were warned.

The likely effect of these continuing warm summers is that people will start purchasing energy greedy air-conditioning in there homes exacerbating the cycle of warming.

Time for radical changes but with the world blowing up all around us environmental vision will always take a back seat.

Peace.

Steve.

[DryHeatDave]

Welcome to my world. When I left rural NW Leics in 1993 & moved to Phoenix Arizona, I wondered what I was getting into.
But it's surprising what you can get used to - over 100F anytime from March to October, with over 110F most years. I even had over 120F in 1994. But less than 8 inches of rain per year.

To put this report in perspective, I was in San Francisco on business last week. Friday was a glorious 80F & a light breeze. I flew back to 118F in Phoenix :-(

I (almost) miss a rainy Summer's day in Shepshed :-)

[Roberto]

I live in Majorca. We have a lot of problems with jelly fish. There are thousands of them in the water near the coast because the water is hot. The animals who feed themselves with the jelly fish are dying because humans are catching them (tuna, turtles). It is a serious health problem that could affect tourism, the main activity here.