Climate Change Impacts Inventory

Sumdoh,

Rising seas from global warming, coming after years of coral reef destruction, are forcing thousands of indigenous Panamanians to leave their ancestral homes on low-lying Caribbean islands. Seasonal winds, storms and high tides combine to submerge the tiny islands, crowded with huts of yellow cane and faded palm fronds, leaving them ankle-deep in emerald water for days on end.Pablo Preciado, leader of the island of Carti Sugdub, remembers that in his childhood floods were rare, brief and barely wetted his toes. "Now it's something else. It's serious," he said.

The increase of a few inches in flood depth is consistent with a global sea level rise over Preciado's 64 years of life and has been made worse by coral mining by the islanders that reduced a buffer against the waves.Carti Sugdub is one of a handful of islands in an archipelago off Panama's northeastern coast, where the government says climate change threatens the livelihood of nearly half of the 32,000 semi-autonomous Kuna people.The 2,000 inhabitants of Carti Sugdub plan to move to coastal areas within the Kuna's autonomous territory on the Panama mainland. They are eyeing foothills a half-hour walk from the swampy beach areas."The water level is rising. The move is imminent," said Preciado, who has been leading a group of villagers clearing tropical forest for the new settlement.

"This is no longer about a scientist saying that climate change and the change in sea level will flood (a people) and affect them," said Hector Guzman, a marine biologist and coral specialist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. "This is happening now in the real world."

The current year may become the warmest on record, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist. Temperature trends across the U.S. and around the world have been among the warmest on record, said David Easterling, a climatologist with NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

The combined land and ocean temperatures around the world were 1.22 degrees warmer than the 20th-century average, according to NOAA records. Since 1975, global temperatures have been rising and since 1960 the number of heat waves has been increasing, Easterling said

“The current spate of heat waves could be a harbinger of things to come.”

New daily high temperature records were set in many cities, with June 2010 ranking as the hottest June on record for Delaware, New Jersey, and North Carolina.

The unusual warmth in the highly populated South and Southeast resulted in the second highest June REDTI value in the 116-year record. For the first half of 2010, large footprints of extreme wetness (more than three times the average footprint), warm minimum temperatures ("warm overnight lows"), and areas experiencing heavy 1-day precipitation events resulted in a Climate Extremes Index (CEI) that was about 6 percent higher than the historical average.

The nationally-averaged temperature for June was much warmer than normal. A deep layer of high pressure dominated much of the eastern United States

The eastern U.S. cooked for another day Wednesday as unrelenting heat again sent thermometers past 100 degrees in urban "heat islands," buckled roads, slowed trains and pushed utilities toward the limit of the electrical grid's capacity.

Records fall again in East as heat swelters on

Philadelphia hit 100 degrees for second straight day, breaking a record of 98 degrees set in 1999. Baltimore hit 100 for the third straight day and Newark, N.J., hit triple digits for the fourth straight day. New York's Central Park was at 99 degrees at 2 p.m.

Eight of the 12 most expensive disasters in U.S. history have occurred since 2004, Munich Re said. Weather-related catastrophes have increased at a faster rate than geophysical events, he said. “Global warming has already and will in the future contribute to the increase in the probability of these events,” he said.

China issued a fresh heatwave alert Wednesday as soaring temperatures -- some of them record highs -- were again forecast for large swathes of the nation, sparking concerns about power shortages.The National Meteorological Centre warned that large parts of northern and central China would again be hit by "sweltering heat and very little rain", with temperatures set to hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).It set the heat alert at "orange" -- the second-highest rating on a four-colour scale.The extreme heat, which began at the weekend in most areas, has led to hospital wards packed with people suffering from heat-related illnesses, a surge in air-conditioner sales and even a plague of locusts in Inner Mongolia.

Zookeepers

used giant ice blocks to keep animals cool, the Xinhua news agency reported.In several cities including Beijing, where the temperature hit 40.6 degrees Celsius on Monday, authorities reported that overheated vehicles had caught fire, state media said.The heatwave comes after torrential rains in June, mainly in southern parts of the nation, caused massive floods and landslides that killed at least 266 people.The soaring temperatures have led to fears of power shortages in several provinces due to high demand for air conditioning, the state-run Global Times reported.In the southern city of Guangzhou, authorities had opened nearly 500 shelters equipped with air-conditioning units and water for people to escape the heat, the report said.Water demand has also soared along with the high temperatures.In Beijing on Monday, nearly three million cubic metres of water was pumped into the capital, the largest single-day usage since tap water was brought into operation in 1910, the China Daily reported.Authorities in the capital said they would double a "high temperature" subsidy for people working outside in the heat, or whose workplaces were hotter than 33 degrees Celsius.Those who work outside will now get an extra 120 yuan (18 dollars) a month, while people in hot indoor places will be paid 90 yuan, the report said.

CYPRUS will face Sahara-like conditions in 10 to 20 years if climate change continues at the current rate, experts said yesterday as temperatures clocked in at five degrees higher than average for this time of year.

From 1900-1991 the average temperature in Cyprus rose from 18.9C to 19.5C. The average is now 20.2C degrees. In other words, Cyprus warmed more in the last 20 years than it did in the previous 90.

“The increasing temperature and decreasing rainfall are causing major damages, and in Cyprus this means desertification.” Theodosiou was keen to stress that this irreversible desertification is not caused by climate change, but is definitely made worse because of it. “There is a misunderstanding that desertification is caused by climate change, but this is wrong. Desertification is caused by human activity, but roads and large developments etc. However, Climate change enlarges the problem.”

Most people in Cambodia depend on farming for their livelihoods. 84 percent live in rural areas. Many live in high risk areas from flooding, droughts and cyclones. Kim Rattana of Caritas Cambodia said, "One of the biggest challenges we are facing in our development work is the increasing occurrence of natural disaster. What we have achieved over many years is being destroyed by storms and washed away by floods." Last year, Typhoon Ketsana destroyed hundreds of homes in Cambodia. Caritas Cambodia had to provide 30,000 people with relief items and food. Low water levels in the Mekong this year, the lifeline that runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, are threatening the livelihoods of more than 60 million people who live along it. In Cambodia, drought has already destroyed harvests and made fishing very difficult.

People in Cambodia don’t have the resources to adapt. That means they are extremely vulnerable to extreme or unpredictable weather. Climate variability has also brought health risks for some of Cambodia's most vulnerable communities. People are vulnerable to diseases like dengue fever, typhoid and diarrhea. Cambodia’s Ministry of Health predicts that under changing climate conditions will increase incidence of malaria by as much as 16 percent. Poor infrastructures and high poverty rates make malaria treatment unaffordable for large segments of the population. Only 55% of the population has access to public health facilities.

David Thoreson has sailed to the ends of the Earth and now carries a message, as if gathered from sea winds.The 50-year-old Iowan and the crew of the 64-foot cutter Ocean Watch finished an epic 382-day journey of 27,524 nautical miles around the Americas on June 17, ending on the very dock they started last May in Seattle.

On his first attempt to sail through the Northwest Passage in 1994, he was stopped cold by ice; his second trip in 2007 was a rare success. This time, Ocean Watch was among a circus of boats ripping through, the ice a victim of a warming climate, he said."A sure sign that change is afoot was seeing standard-production sailboats with families going through the Northwest Passage."

Aruvian's R'search presents Global Warming & the Insurance Industry - a new research report which analyzes the impact global warming and climate change is having on the insurance industry, which some say is the worst hit industry when it comes to battling and getting over the growing number of natural disasters.The research report looks at the cause and effect of Global Warming, the technicalities of the Kyoto Protocol, Global Climate Models, the economics of global warming, and then moves on to analyze the impact of global warming on the insurance industry. This is analyzed through growth drivers, issues facing the industry when it comes to global warming, the various action models the insurance industry is following in order to combat global warming, and much more. An analysis of the major insurers which are involved in the global warming debate such as Swiss Re, Munich Re, etc., is also included in the report.

Oil is not the only commodity that has been roaring ahead this year. Precious metals are in a major bull market as are corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans. In fact, while the fall in the dollar is part of the commodity futures bull markets story you can not get away from the fact that rapidly developing economies in a number of nations and changes in weather patterns caused by climate change are important factors in driving futures prices.

Average June ice extent was the lowest in the satellite data record, from 1979 to 2010. Arctic air temperatures were higher than normal, and Arctic sea ice continued to decline at a fast pace. June saw the return of the Arctic dipole anomaly, an atmospheric pressure pattern that contributed to the record sea ice loss in 2007.

At the end of May 2010, daily ice extent fell below the previous record low for May, recorded in 2006, and during June continued to track at record low levels

The linear rate of monthly decline for June over the 1979 to 2010 period is now 3.5% per decade. This year’s daily June rate of decline was the fastest in the satellite record; the previous record for the fastest rate of June decline was set in 1999

The U.S. Coast Guard won't have any heavy icebreakers available for polar operations for at least six months because of mechanical breakdowns in its small, aging fleet, officials say.

Until now, the federal government's strategy has been to try to keep its two heavy icebreakers, both built in the 1970s, operating as long as possible.However, this strategy did not take into account how quickly global warming would make Arctic waters more accessible to commercial activities.Construction of a new icebreaker would cost about $1 billion, Goward said.