The rain has fallen heavily on Beijing. Here, villagers in the Mentougou district view the devastation. Photo: AP
The heavy rains that have fallen on Beijing in recent days are the worst since the country began keeping statistics 140 years ago, according to the city’s weather service. At least 20 people are dead in the downpour in the capital.
Beijing has received rainfall that normally comes an average month in just 40 hours.
– The largest amount of rain was 744.8 millimeters in the Wangjiayan reservoir in [förorten] Changping, says the Beijing Meteorological Service according to The Guardian.
The rainfall was remnants of Super Typhoon Doksuri, which was downgraded to a storm after moving across southern China’s Fujian province last week.
In the neighboring province of Hebei, nine are dead and more than 800,000 residents have been evacuated in the wake of the storm.
The heavy rain in the country is the latest in a series of extreme weather events and is causing concern about climate change.
According to scientists, extreme weather in China – including record high temperatures during the summer – has been exacerbated by the climate crisis.
The extreme weather comes as China is accused of undermining climate talks with other countries during the G20 summit in India last week.
Now China is preparing for the next typhoon, Khanun, which is the sixth storm this year.
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Christina Nordh
yesterday08.06
Protests against a new coal mine continue in the Akbelen Forest near the village of Ikizkoy in southwestern Turkey Photo: AP
Turkish protesters are fighting to protect forest land earmarked by authorities for coal mining in southwestern Turkey.
Local residents have fought for four years for the preservation of the Akbelen forest and tried to stop the logging that paves the way for the mining of lignite near the village of Ikizkoy in the Mugla province, writes AP.
Tree felling teams, which began felling in the 740,000 square meter forest a week ago, have now finished the work.
Yesterday, the protesters announced that the fight will continue, even though the tree felling has been completed.
Several times there have been violent confrontations between the police, who were called in to protect the work, and the environmental activists. The police then used water cannons and pepper spray against the demonstrators.
– They have slaughtered our forest. They destroyed our trees, which we have protected for four years, in eight days. As residents of Ikizkoy, we do not break our promise. We will fight to the last drop, says Nejla Isik from Ikizkoy’s environmental committee, according to Duvar newspaper.
According to the Institute for Foreign Affairs, most of Turkey’s electricity is produced from natural gas and coal. Fossil fuels are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
Agneta Elmegård
Monday 11.17
The High Arctic plants bloom at dramatically different times in different years. Now the flowering no longer just happens earlier, but it is also more unpredictable Photo: Niels Martin Schmidt
In 2007, scientists in Greenland reported some of the fastest changes in nature’s timetable ever observed. Now 15 years later, the same researchers have compiled a twice as long time series of studies, published in Current Biology. The finding is that the pattern has changed a lot over time. While the springs used to come earlier, nowadays there is a great variation in when they occur. One spring can differ drastically from the previous one – something that can have serious consequences for the species’ ability to adapt to a changing climate.
– We saw large differences in climate conditions from one year to another that no phenological (the seasonal timetable, ed. note) trends are evident anymore. We can also note that some organisms seem to be approaching the limit of how much they can adjust their phenology – and that they are thus unable to keep pace with the large fluctuations, above all in temperature. Our study shows that climate change is more than just continued warming. In many ecosystems, such as the High Arctic, it is climate change that determines the dynamics of the ecosystem over time, summarizes Niels Martin Schmidt at Aarhus University, Denmark, in a press release.
Christina Nordh
Monday08.17
More patients seek treatment for burns in the extreme heat. Photo: AP (Archive image)
Record-warm July is in its last day. 70 million still live with alarms about extreme heat, it is hottest in the plains of the southern United States and in the southeast, writes CNN.
Yesterday Sunday, residents of the Northeast got a much-needed break from the heat that has now caused warnings in 10 states, from Texas to Florida, according to the weather service NOAA.
– Record high maximum and minimum temperatures are possible in those regions next week, according to the weather service.
Phoenix was above 43 degrees for the thirtieth day in a row yesterday, Sunday, with a high of 46 degrees.
Not even cacti can withstand the extreme heat in Phoenix, several cacti have collapsed.
Dehydrated animals have also had to be taken urgently to centers for care.
In hospitals, doctors in Arizona are now also increasing the number of patients with burns after they fell on the boiling hot ground.
According to scientists, the extreme heat is due to climate change caused by humans.
Joachim Kerpner
Monday 08.06
Melting icebergs in Antarctica. Photo: ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
The sea ice in Antarctica has reached extremely low levels.
The ice cover is now 2.6 million square kilometers less than the 1980-2010 average.
The loss of ice corresponds to more than five Sweden.
The extent of the ice cover is at the lowest levels since measurements began 45 years ago, data from the US NSIDC, National Snow and Ice Data Center, shows according to CNN.
– Something has changed radically in the last two years, and especially this year, compared to all other years at least 45 years back in time, says glaciologist Ted Scambos at NSIDC to CNN.
Read more here.
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Have looked everywhere about the forest fire around Norberg. Assume it is under control as there is no news.
Hugo
Hello! News about the forest fire in Norberg can be found here. And here.
When will politicians learn the difference between environment and climate?
The climate is the relationship with the sun, the movements of the earth which are the major factors. Sweden’s role in this does not exist at all, on the other hand China emits enormous amounts of carbon dioxide and increases the burning of fossil substances every year by 33 times Sweden’s total emissions. Our politicians strain mosquitoes and swallow elephants. The attack to save the environment & climate is not about Sweden at all, but rather countries like China.
Lena Karlsson
Haven’t read in the online newspaper about the new findings from SLU about bald cutting, why?
Anders Eriksson
What responsibility do municipalities have for the climate? In my vicinity, I see a municipality in an expansive phase where they don’t even seem to have thought about e.g. emissions from traffic, noise, access to groundwater, impact on nearby watercourses.
Annie
The truth is that many municipalities are lagging behind in this work and there is no regulated “agreement” between the state and municipalities to act against Agenda 2030 or the national climate goals in 2045.
I’m a little tired of trudging around among washed-up plastic and other trash here on the west coast. There is a beach cleaner map and many cleaners but it must be stopped at the source. What is being done on that front?
Pray
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The Skåne coast is identified as a national risk area for flooding and erosion – Löderup’s beach is particularly vulnerable.
– Climate change means that we have to abandon the view of what the coasts look like today, says Per Danielsson at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute.
Kristianstad is Sweden’s lowest situated city.
New and higher dikes are now being built.
– We are doing this to protect the city against high tides and future sea level rises, says Karl Erik Svensson, project manager for the dike construction.