Are parts of India becoming too hot for humans?

India, the Arabian peninsula and gulf states, SW USA all will become unbearable- and then it will get worse...

Intense heat waves have killed more than 100 people in India this summer and are predicted to worsen in coming years, creating a possible humanitarian crisis as large parts of the country potentially become too hot to be inhabitable.
Heat waves in India usually take place between March and July and abate once the monsoon rains arrive. But in recent years these hot spells have become more intense, more frequent and longer.

A mirage shimmers in New Delhi on June 10, 2019.
India is among the countries expected to be worst affected by the impacts of climate crisis, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say that even if the world succeeds in cutting carbon emissions, limiting the predicted rise in average global temperatures, parts of India will become so hot they will test the limits of human survivability.

"The future of heat waves is looking worse even with significant mitigation of climate change, and much worse without mitigation," said Elfatih Eltahir, a professor of hydrology and climate at MIT.

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You could be ingesting a teaspoon of microplastic every week, study finds - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A new study has found that the global average of microplastic ingestion could be as high as five grams a week per person, which is the equivalent of eating a teaspoon of plastic — or a credit card — every week.
The study was commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and carried out by the microplastics research team at Australia's University of Newcastle.
It collated the findings of 50 international research papers in an attempt to provide an accurate calculation of ingestion rates.

PHOTO: WWF says since 2000 the world has produced as much plastic as all the preceding years combined. (Supplied: University of Newcastle, Maddison Carbery)
Continue reading at: You could be ingesting a teaspoon of microplastic every week, study finds - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Alaska sees record temperatures in heatwave

The US state of Alaska, part of which lies inside the Arctic Circle, is sweltering under a heatwave, with record temperatures recorded in several areas, including its largest city.
Temperatures reached 90F (32C) in Anchorage on Thursday, shattering the city's previous record of 85F.
Several other places in southern Alaska also set all-time or daily records.
Experts say the unusual weather has been caused by a "heat dome" over the southern part of the state.

The high pressure system is expected to move north next week.
Continue reading: Alaska sees record temperatures in heatwave

Climate change: Trees 'most effective solution' for warming - BBC News

Researchers say an area the size of the US is available for planting trees around the world, and this could have a dramatic impact on climate change.
The study shows that the space available for trees is far greater than previously thought, and would reduce CO2 in the atmosphere by 25%.
The authors say that this is the most effective climate change solution available to the world right now.

SUTTHIPONG4222

But other researchers say the new study is "too good to be true".
Continue reading at: Climate change: Trees 'most effective solution' for warming - BBC News

CO2 emissions are set to exceed 1.5 degrees of global warming | Science News

Current and planned energy infrastructure could emit around 850 gigatons of the greenhouse gas.
A new study shows just how hard it may be to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius over preindustrial times.
The world’s existing power plants, industrial equipment, vehicles and other CO₂-emitters are on track to pump out enough carbon dioxide to blow past that target by midcentury, researchers report July 1 in Nature.  Add in future power plants that are already planned, permitted or under construction, and we could emit enough by 2033 to raise average global atmospheric temperatures by 1.5 degrees, the researchers say. 
If we want to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, then “we cannot invest more in fossil fuel power or infrastructure,” says Thorsten Mauritsen, a physical climate scientist at Stockholm University who was not involved with the work. “Everything we do from now has to change direction and not use fossil fuels.”
In the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, nearly all the world’s nations agreed to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to limit warming to “well below” 2 degrees by 2100 (SN: 1/9/16, p. 6). The United States has said it would pull out of the agreement (SN Online: 6/1/17), though the exit wouldn’t be complete until 2020.
Still, calls have increased since 2015 for the more ambitious goal of keeping warming to 1.5 degrees. That would mean fewer heat waves, spells of extreme weather and species extinctions (10/27/18, p.7).

COMMITTED  Carbon dioxide emissions from the fossil fuel infrastructure that’s already built will probably push us past 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming, according to a new study.
Continue reading at: CO2 emissions are set to exceed 1.5 degrees of global warming | Science News

Europe’s latest heat wave has been linked to climate change | Science News

Global warming driven by human activity made the heat wave at least five times more likely.
Climate change made it five times more likely that Europe would experience a powerful heat wave like the one that baked the region in June, an international team of scientists reports.
The findings, released July 2 by the World Weather Attribution Network, tackle the tricky question of how the heat wave might have been linked to global warming (SN Online: 6/2/19). The extreme weather broke heat records in parts of Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, and set an all-time high for France of 45.9° Celsius (114.6° Fahrenheit).
Heat waves aren’t just about isolated high temperatures; the events are also defined by where, when and for how long they occur.  To identify heat wave patterns and determine if climate change played a role in the June event, the network’s scientists examined three-day averages of the average daily temperatures for France during the heat wave, and compared those to previous temperature observations as well as to climate simulations to assess the role of climate change.

SWELTERING SUMMER  Temperatures were blistering in Paris on June 26, as people sought relief from a brief but intense heat wave in the Trocadero Gardens fountain. A new study finds that climate change made the extreme temperature event at least five times more likely. XINHUA/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
Current climate conditions make the June heat wave in France up to 100 times more likely to occur than it would have been in 1901, the team found. It’s unclear exactly how much climate change contributed to that increased risk, due to several factors including that temperature observations began only in 1947. But the researchers say they are “very confident” that climate change increased the probability by at least a factor of five. The findings have yet to be peer reviewed.
Continue reading at: Europe’s latest heat wave has been linked to climate change | Science News

June Was So Hot, Mussels Cooked to Death in Their Shells

Last month was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, affecting vulnerable people worldwide.

The European Satellite Agency recently announced that June was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth — in fact, in California, it was so hot that mussels on rocks fried to death inside their shells.

Temperatures in Bodega Bay in northern California soared up to 75 degrees Fahrenheit and 97 degrees in San Francisco last month. And the mussels, which attach themselves to coastal rocks, were exposed to the scorching heat following many consecutive days of mid-day low tides in the area.

The animals can normally cool off and survive higher temperatures by venting the heat, but need sea breeze to carry it away. Unfortunately, the Californian shorelines witnessed no such breezes during the recent extreme heat waves, causing the mussels to die off in alarming numbers.

Brian Helmuth@Aquanaut1967

It's so hot that mussels are cooking in their shells and highways are buckling @CNN https://cnn.it/2ZWnWI2 

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8:28 AM - Jul 2, 2019

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It's so hot that mussels are cooking in their shells and highways are buckling

Mussels are frying to death along the shores of northern California.

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