Sunny climate, stormy climate | Weekly digest #12
This week we talk about heat waves (again), the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and how a simple idea like painting roofs white is helping India's poor women build heat resilient homes!
For the ones who are new here - Every week I bring to you 5 stories about the changing climate and its impact on us!
3 stormy ones - concerning stories that are a source of alarm
2 sunny ones - green shoots that tell you that all is not yet lost
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Stormy news
Heat waves continue to wreak havoc
Last week, we covered heat waves across the US, Europe and China. Through last week, the situation has gotten worse with forest fires, overflowing ERs and more records being broken. A few stories:
US - Phoenix breaking heat records, left right and center!
Phoenix has been experiencing a severe heat wave for almost all of July.
On July 18, Phoenix had seen 19 consecutive days with temperatures above 110 deg F breaking a record set in 1974. The record extended to 21 days with max temperatures remaining above 110 at least till July 21.
On July 19, Phoenix saw temperatures reach 117 deg F, making it the hottest day in 6 years (since 2017) and the fourth hottest ever.
People have reported getting severe burns after coming in direct contact with pavements.
There have been 12 heat-related deaths in the Phoenix area so far in 2023, with 55 other deaths currently under investigation (for attribution to heat)
Extreme heat is killing ordinary workers in Italy: There have been at least 5 deaths in Italy in the last week that can be directly attributed to heat related impacts. This includes a person working in the supermarket, one road worker, a laborer operating a crane, a construction worker and a baker. In almost all cases, the individuals had heart related ailments (that put them at higher risk). The actual death toll of the heat is expected to be much higher.
Forest fires in Greece : The intense heat has triggered forest fires on the island of Rhodes. Over 17000 people including 2000 tourists had to be evacuated from the island and more than 200 fire fighters have been engaged in tackling the blaze for the last several days.
New discovery from Greenland’s ice sheet suggests potential for dramatic sea level rise
View of the Greenland ice sheet; Source: CNN What is the Greenland ice sheet?
It is a vast body of ice covering nearly 1.7 mn square km. It is the second largest body of ice in the world after the Antarctic ice sheet.
The average thickness of the ice sheet is almost 1.5 km and it is more than 3 km at its thickest point.
What is the expected impact of climate change (global warming) on the Greenland ice sheet?
The increasing temperatures are expected to cause the ice sheet to melt resulting in an increase in sea levels across the globe.
Till recently, it was expected that only a small fraction of the ice sheet would melt in the 21st century and that at the current rate of warming the entire ice sheet may eventually melt, but it will take millennia.
In April, there were reports stating that scientists have discovered that the Greenland ice sheet is melting at a much faster pace than expected. The scientists found that the melting has increased 6 fold over the last 30 years.
What is happening right now?
Greenland is seeing unusually high temperatures right now. The day temperatures are almost 10 degrees higher than what is expected at this time of the year.
Scientists are able to walk around in short sleeved t shirts which is not normal for a place that is at 60 deg N latitude and they had to shut down a frozen landing strip as the heat caused it to melt and become too soft.
They have seen several ‘high melt days’ - days on which large amounts of the sheet melts. From July 15 to 17th alone a melt surge caused ice sheet run off of 6 bn tonnes of water per day. Its the volume of water in 2.4 bn Olympic size pools!
The latest analysis of an ice core taken from beneath Greenland’s ice sheets decades ago suggests that Greenland was completely ice free 400,000 years back when temperatures were at similar levels to what the world is approaching now (as opposed to the earlier belief that the Greenland ice sheet has been frozen for millions of years)
If Greenland’s ice sheet saw rapid melting during a period of moderate warming, it “may be more sensitive to human-caused climate change than previously understood – and will be vulnerable to irreversible, rapid melting” the study authors said in a statement.
Why is this scary?
If the entire Greenland ice sheet were to melt, it would cause a sea level rise of 7 meters, causing devastation to billions who live along the world’s coasts.
G20 countries fail to reach agreement on cutting fossil fuels. Yet again.
While the world is literally burning or melting, world leaders appear to be living on a different planet with no urgency to take corrective action.
The G20 countries met in India last week to try and reach a consensus on phasing out fossil fuels.
However, after several days of discussion they failed to reach an agreement.
Major fossil fuel providers like Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, South Africa and Indonesia are all known to have opposed the goal of tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030.
Sunny news
A simple solution is helping Indian women keep their houses cool.
A simple solution of painting roofs with white solar reflective paint is helping limit oppressive heat and bring temperatures inside houses down.
A scene from Jodhpur, India where roofs are getting covered in white reflective paint. What is the TL;DR?
Mahila Housing Trust (MHT), a non-profit is helping poor women in Indian cities build heat resilience.
One of the solutions proposed is to paint the roofs with white solar reflective paint.
"We painted the roof ourselves. It felt very good to paint one's own home," says 19-year old Pinky who got this paint from MHT. Since applying the paint, Pinky has noticed that her home feels cooler.
What difference does it make?
A study done by Indian institute of Public health, Gandhinagar found that the cool roofs (with solar reflective paint) are at least 1 deg cooler than uncoated tin roofs
It also found that at the hottest time of the day, the cool roofs are 4.5 deg C cooler than asbestos sheet roofs.
Other studies done in schools in rural India and Greece have also found that the white painted roofs bring down temperatures by 1.5 - 2.3 deg C
What is the impact so far?
MHT has been working in informal settlements and slums in India for 28 years and has installed 30,000 cool roofs in nine states.
After seeing the impact of this work, MHT has been invited by city governments to become part of city heat action planning. Cooling roofs are now part of the Ahmedabad heat action plan and the Jodhpur heat action plan.
In addition to supplying the paint, MHT organises training sessions for women in the slums where they are taught about climate change and given practical guidance on how to avoid heat stress.
Young Montana residents are taking the government to court over their future environment
A groundbreaking trial began in Montana in June where 16 young residents have sued the state for violating their constitutional rights to a healthy environment
This will be the first ever constitutional climate trial in US history
The plaintiffs argued that the state's support of the fossil fuel industry had worsened the effects of climate change on their lives, thus depriving them of their constitutional rights.
More specifically, the plaintiffs challenged a provision in the Montana Environmental Policy Act that prohibited the state from considering greenhouse gas emissions as a factor when deciding whether to issue permits for energy-related projects.
The case hearing has concluded on June 20th, however the result is still awaited.
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