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Captain Compassion
Guest
Early 2007 saw record-breaking extreme weather: U.N.
By Laura MacInnis
1 hour, 49 minutes ago
GENEVA (Reuters) - The world experienced a series of record-breaking
weather events in early 2007, from flooding in Asia to heatwaves in
Europe and snowfall in South Africa, the United Nations weather agency
said on Tuesday.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said global land surface
temperatures in January and April were likely the warmest since
records began in 1880, at more than 1 degree Celsius higher than
average for those months.
There have also been severe monsoon floods across South Asia,
abnormally heavy rains in northern Europe, China, Sudan, Mozambique
and Uruguay, extreme heatwaves in southeastern Europe and Russia, and
unusual snowfall in South Africa and South America this year, the WMO
said.
"The start of the year 2007 was a very active period in terms of
extreme weather events," Omar Baddour of the agency's World Climate
Program told journalists in Geneva.
While most scientists believe extreme weather events will be more
frequent as heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions cause global
temperatures to rise, Baddour said it was impossible to say with
certainty what the second half of 2007 will bring.
"It is very difficult to make projections for the rest of the year,"
he said.
HEALTH CRISIS
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a U.N. umbrella
group of hundreds of experts, has noted an increasing trend in extreme
weather events over the past 50 years and said irregular patterns are
likely to intensify.
South Asia's worst monsoon flooding in recent memory has affected 30
million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, destroying croplands,
livestock and property and raising fears of a health crisis in the
densely-populated region.
Heavy rains also doused southern China in June, with nearly 14 million
people affected by floods and landslides that killed 120 people, the
WMO said.
England and Wales this year had their wettest May and June since
records began in 1766, resulting in extensive flooding and more than
$6 billion in damage, as well as at least nine deaths. Germany swung
from its driest April since country-wide observations started in 1901
to its wettest May on record.
Mozambique suffered its worst floods in six years in February,
followed by a tropical cyclone the same month, and flooding of the
Nile River in June caused damage in Sudan.
Uruguay had its worst flooding since 1959 in May.
Huge swell waves swamped some 68 islands in the Maldives in May,
resulting in severe damage, and the Arabian Sea had its first
documented cyclone in June, touching Oman and Iran.
Temperature records were broken in southeastern Europe in June and
July, and in western and central Russia in May. In many European
countries, April was the warmest ever recorded.
Argentina and Chile saw unusually cold winter temperatures in July
while South Africa had its first significant snowfall since 1981 in
June.
The WMO and its 188 member states are working to set up an early
warning system for extreme weather events. The agency is also seeking
to improve monitoring of the impacts of climate change, particularly
in poorer countries which are expected to bear the brunt of floods,
droughts and storms.
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
By Laura MacInnis
1 hour, 49 minutes ago
GENEVA (Reuters) - The world experienced a series of record-breaking
weather events in early 2007, from flooding in Asia to heatwaves in
Europe and snowfall in South Africa, the United Nations weather agency
said on Tuesday.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said global land surface
temperatures in January and April were likely the warmest since
records began in 1880, at more than 1 degree Celsius higher than
average for those months.
There have also been severe monsoon floods across South Asia,
abnormally heavy rains in northern Europe, China, Sudan, Mozambique
and Uruguay, extreme heatwaves in southeastern Europe and Russia, and
unusual snowfall in South Africa and South America this year, the WMO
said.
"The start of the year 2007 was a very active period in terms of
extreme weather events," Omar Baddour of the agency's World Climate
Program told journalists in Geneva.
While most scientists believe extreme weather events will be more
frequent as heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions cause global
temperatures to rise, Baddour said it was impossible to say with
certainty what the second half of 2007 will bring.
"It is very difficult to make projections for the rest of the year,"
he said.
HEALTH CRISIS
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a U.N. umbrella
group of hundreds of experts, has noted an increasing trend in extreme
weather events over the past 50 years and said irregular patterns are
likely to intensify.
South Asia's worst monsoon flooding in recent memory has affected 30
million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, destroying croplands,
livestock and property and raising fears of a health crisis in the
densely-populated region.
Heavy rains also doused southern China in June, with nearly 14 million
people affected by floods and landslides that killed 120 people, the
WMO said.
England and Wales this year had their wettest May and June since
records began in 1766, resulting in extensive flooding and more than
$6 billion in damage, as well as at least nine deaths. Germany swung
from its driest April since country-wide observations started in 1901
to its wettest May on record.
Mozambique suffered its worst floods in six years in February,
followed by a tropical cyclone the same month, and flooding of the
Nile River in June caused damage in Sudan.
Uruguay had its worst flooding since 1959 in May.
Huge swell waves swamped some 68 islands in the Maldives in May,
resulting in severe damage, and the Arabian Sea had its first
documented cyclone in June, touching Oman and Iran.
Temperature records were broken in southeastern Europe in June and
July, and in western and central Russia in May. In many European
countries, April was the warmest ever recorded.
Argentina and Chile saw unusually cold winter temperatures in July
while South Africa had its first significant snowfall since 1981 in
June.
The WMO and its 188 member states are working to set up an early
warning system for extreme weather events. The agency is also seeking
to improve monitoring of the impacts of climate change, particularly
in poorer countries which are expected to bear the brunt of floods,
droughts and storms.
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
