The mudslide in Petropolis in February 2022 killed 233 people, and displaced many more. Over the past decade, climate-related disasters have displaced 250 million people globally, equivalent to 70,000 people forced from their homes every day.
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"The ecosystem has realized that if they don't latch on to this next wave, they might end up being digitally colonized. Economic gains flow to the country that converts raw material into finished goods-and, in this case, the raw material is data."
Not only will temperatures break March monthly records, but this heatwave will even break April records. Over the next week, around 800 high temperature records are forecast to be neared, tied or broken at 165 locations in Western and Central states - some by more than 10 degrees - with unusual warmth set to linger into late March.
A lack of insurance coverage in Southeast Asia threatens an increasingly important hub for supply chains, as the region is battered by tropical storms, major flooding, and other natural disasters. Total losses from natural disasters across Asia-Pacific last year totaled $73 billion, yet just $9 billion was insured, according to Germany reinsurance company Munich Re. That makes Asia one of the world's least insured regions against natural disasters.
"So whenever people think about hot weather, they always talk about the temperature," he says. "There's two issues with that. First of all, most people don't realise that the temperature is measured in the shade. So if you're in direct solar radiation, the amount of heat stress you're exposed to is much greater as it will stress your body out a lot more."
I do understand that you're going to get some rain in winter, but it has definitely got worse. Even if you do manage to work for a day, it's punctuated by periods of an hour and a half of rain where you're sitting in your truck doing nothing. Before, I used to think, a day off, that's great. But now you think, oh, jeez, not another day off!
Australians are struggling through one of the most brutal heatwaves and hottest summers on record. Day after day, temperatures into the high 30s are turning homes into ovens, workplaces into hazards, and everyday tasks into endurance tests. All of us are feeling it. But spare a thought for the millions of renters trying to survive this heat in homes that were never designed to cope with it.
Because the past three years have shattered temperature records, researchers have been exploring whether global warming is accelerating, and if so, why. Many scientists agree that the rate at which it is increasing has picked up. This is mainly because of a reduction in air pollution following the introduction of fuel regulations for international shipping (which has resulted in fewer pollutant particles that reflect sunlight into space and seed insulating clouds).
Dry air should move into South Florida this week, along with warm sunshine. Overnight Tuesday, a drier and more stable air mass will descend upon the state, creating a near-zero chance of rain throughout the week and into the weekend. Chances of rain are very low, with the exception of a brief coastal shower toward the end of the week. Sunny skies will prevail as well, pushing afternoon highs to the mid-upper 80s toward the weekend.
While cold-stunned iguanas fall from trees in Florida and videos circulate of frozen "exploding" trees in the Northeast, Southern California is working up a sweat. A midwinter heat wave has descended on much of the state and is expected to spike temperatures as much as 20 degrees above normal in the coming week. The summer-like heat is thanks to a ridge of high pressure lingering high in the atmosphere that extends through the San Francisco Bay Area and into the Pacific Northwest.
