The climate change thread

The high in Kamagaya today was 106°, the highest temperature ever recorded in Japan. Yikes!

Record-breaking heat wave hits Japan, killing at least 44

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/to...ZTdW?ocid=AMZN

A new study shows the correlation between higher temperatures and suicides. Global warming could lead to an additional 21,000 suicides by 2050. Yikes!

Stanford researchers find warming temperatures could increase suicide rates across the US and Mexico

https://news.stanford.edu/2018/07/23...suicide-rates/

Yesterday the temperature reached a record-high 114° in Waco and a record-high 115° in Phoenix and the climate-change deniers are having an increasingly difficult time explaining why they believe the earth is not getting warmer.

Temperatures near 120° in Southwest as Texas reports record highs

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-r...ay-2018-07-24/

Gee, tell us something we don't know.

Record-breaking heat and fires are worsened by climate change, scientists say
CBS News, Jul 28 2018 10:38 AM

Heat waves are setting all-time temperature records across the globe -- again. Europe suffered its deadliest fire in more than a century, and one of nearly 90 large fires in the US West burned dozens of homes and forced the evacuation of at least 37,000 people near Redding, California. Flood-inducing downpours have pounded the US East this week. It's all part of summer -- but it's all being made worse by human-caused climate change, scientists say.

Japan hit 106° on Monday, its hottest temperature ever. Records fell in parts of Massachusetts, Maine, Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico and Texas. And then there's crazy heat in Europe, where normally chill Norway, Sweden and Finland all saw temperatures they have never seen before on any date, pushing past 90°. So far this month, at least 118 of these all-time heat records have been set or tied across the globe, according to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.

The explanations should sound as familiar as the crash of broken records. "We now have very strong evidence that global warming has already put a thumb on the scales, upping the odds of extremes like severe heat and heavy rainfall," Stanford University climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh said. "We find that global warming has increased the odds of record-setting hot events over more than 80% of the planet and has increased the odds of record-setting wet events at around half of the planet.

Climate change is making the world warmer because of the build-up of heat-trapping gases from the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil and other human activities. A study by European scientists Friday found that the ongoing European heat wave is twice as likely because of human-caused global warming.

Georgia Tech climate scientist Kim Cobb said the link between climate change and fires isn't as strong as it is with heat waves but it is becoming clearer. In the United States on Friday, there were 89 active large fires consuming nearly 900,000 acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The Carr Fire in Northern California has burned hundreds of homes and is threatening thousands of other structures.

So far this year, fires have burned 4.15 million acres, which is nearly 14% higher than average over the past 10 years. In Greece, a devastating fire this month caused at least 83 fatalities.

The first major science study to connect greenhouse gases to stronger and longer heat waves was in 2004. It was titled "More intense, more frequent and longer lasting heat waves in the 21st century." Study author Gerald Meehl of the National Center For Atmospheric Research said Friday that now it "reads like a prediction of what has been happening and will continue to happen as long as average temperatures continue to rise with ever-increasing emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels. It's no mystery."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/record-...cientists-say/

CNN headline:

2018 is a hot year. It's on pace to be the 4th-hottest on record.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/to...a0eT?ocid=AMZN

The three hottest years? 2015, 2016 and 2017. The facts speak for themselves.

CBS News yesterday reported (above) that fires and heat waves are made worse by climate change. Today, further proof:

Wildfires rage across Europe as countries battle intense heat wave

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-w...728-story.html

Can we say the heat wave is "making a molehill out of a mountain"?

Sweden's tallest peak shrinks as extreme heat wave bakes Europe
NBC News, Aug 2 2018 7:46 AM

Sweden's tallest peak is on course to lose that title as a persistent heat wave melts away inches of the glacier atop it daily. The height of Kebnekaise mountain dropped by 13 feet during July, according to the latest measurements. Weekly temperatures in parts of northern Europe could reach as much as 18 degrees above normal levels through early August, according to forecasters — with hot conditions also contributing to wildfires raging north of the Arctic Circle.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/s...europe-n896831

July 2018 was the hottest July on record in Death Valley National Park in California. The average temperature was 108.1°. There were four consecutive days of 127° temperatures and ten nights with temperatures that didn't drop below 100. Yikes!

Death Valley was the hottest place on the planet in July

http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-...802-story.html

Today's Bible-study verse is Revelation 16:9, "The people were scorched with intense heat and they cursed the name of God." This is already starting to happen.

Heat waves may make China unlivable, says study
Newsweek, Aug 3 2018

Heat waves caused by climate change could make China’s main agricultural regions the most inhospitable places for humans on earth. A study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found that soaring temperatures will make the North China Plain, which spans 35 million acres from Beijing to Shanghai, uninhabitable by the end of the century. The region generates around a fifth of the country’s grain and is currently home to 400 million people.

Elfatih Eltahir, a climate professor at MIT, said: "This spot is going to be the hottest spot for deadly heat waves in the future." The study which Eltahir led showed the potential of heat waves to cause what is known as "wet bulb" temperatures. Those occur when the heat and humidity, even in the shade, are so strong that it is impossible for the human body to cool itself.

Under these conditions which could be common by 2070, a seemingly healthy person could die within six hours, said the study published in the journal Nature Communications. Lacking rain, the irrigation processes in the North China Plain are so intense that its evaporation leads to higher humidity, further adding to temperatures.

The MIT study concluded that recent heat waves in the region, such as one in 2013 that went on for 50 days, will become more common. "The North China Plain is likely to experience deadly heat waves with wet bulb temperatures exceeding the threshold defining what Chinese farmers may tolerate," Eltahir said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...rReI?ocid=AMZN

The New York Times says the devastating effects of the European heat wave are comparable to Biblical plagues. Indeed, Revelation chapter 16 describes (among other calamities) intense heat, heavy hail, earthquakes, diseases and the drying up of rivers. Writing in the first century, John the Apostle accurately foresaw the twenty-first century!

Scorching summer in Europe signals long-term climate changes

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/04/w...heat-wave.html