Millions of students in all public schools across the Philippines ordered to stay home after authorities cancelled classes for 2 days... avoid outdoor activities & drink plenty of water, but the young & the elderly were told to be especially careful.
#Cambodia this year is facing the highest temperatures in 170 years. #Thailand's Department of Disease Control said last week > 30 people have died from heat stroke, compared to 37 for all of last year.
The rate of emergency room visits caused by heat illness increased significantly last year in large swaths of the country compared with the previous five years, according to a study published on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The heat you were asked to manage 10 years ago is not the heat you’re being asked to manage today,” she said. One of the first symptoms of heat illness can be confusion, she added, making it harder for someone to respond without help from others.
Does anyone have any resources on financial planning/outlook for individuals given the climate crisis? I understand the socio-economic risks, but business as usual looks like old habitual finances and that just seems incomprehensible/weird. #ClimateEmergency#ClimateChange#ClimateImpacts#FinancialPlanning
Coverage prices could rise due to the impacts of #ClimateChange fueled disasters.
As water levels and average temperatures rise, so do concerns over #InsuranceCoverage for Greater Victoria #homeowners amid a larger problem in #BritishColumbia – climate change-fuelled disasters.
Tiny pieces of semi-combusted petrol, microscopic specks of charred timber from a fireplace, minute scraps of coal ash, little flecks of tyre rubber, miniature particles of a gum tree lit now to avoid burning later: all this and more is particulate matter. Stuff small enough to float on the breeze for a while.
And some of it is small enough to flit through your nasal hairs, to sidestep the phlegm lining your trachea, to find a home deep in the alveoli of your lungs, indeed, so titchy it can cross into your bloodstream, travelling along your arterial highways and byways into heart, belly and brain.
Our bodies can handle a bit of this. A bit.
But not much. Not of the really tiny stuff.
Particulate matter is one of the most harmful forms of #AirPollution, contributing to many millions of premature deaths each year, and compromising the health and wellbeing of billions. Particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter are the most dangerous (a human hair is about 75 microns wide). These are called PM2.5.
The World Health Organisation updated its guidelines in 2021.
Chronic exposure to PM2.5 ought to be kept below a concentration of 5 micrograms per cubic metre.
Acute exposure (no more than a handful of times annually) should be kept below 15.
All the smoke around Sydney this week is from hazard reduction burns. i.e. controlled burns conducted by the rural fire service to mitigate this summer's bushfire's risk, which has been assessed as particularly high, after three very wet La Ninã years and with a likely El Niño developing.
The #RFS is way behind schedule on this due to all the rain and other complicating factors causing many delays. With temperatures topping 30ºC this weekend, they are rushing to get as much done as they can before the window closes.
Speaking of which, make sure all your windows are closed.
It's a nasty trade-off: to reduce the risk of a climate disaster hitting hard this summer, we conduct an activity with its own risk of air quality for five million people dropping into the toilet for a week. These days of bad air (and even worse nights) will result in premature deaths, increased hospitalisations, and some long-term damage to everyone's respiratory health (esp children).
Once more, given the direct impacts on air quality and the long-term global worsening of #wildfire risk, this moment is another salutary reminder that #DirtyEnergy sends our future up in smoke.
"The standout example of how extreme weather can drive up food prices is olive oil. The Mediterranean staple has more than doubled over the last 12 months to $8,000 a metric ton, a record high according to statistics tracked by the International Monetary Fund back to 1990. Extreme heat was the culprit as Spain, the world’s largest producer, was hard hit by drought."
It’s starting with insurers. When homes are destroyed and homeowners lose everything, with no recourse, market forces herd people away from the zones of greatest vulnerability:
In areas most vulnerable to climate change-enhanced disasters, like Florida, the cost of home insurance has gone up so much that it’s now affecting how much lenders will give — potentially pushing many out of the home ownership market altogether.
Others are risking having no insurance at all, gambling on complete financial ruin should their home be damaged or destroyed.
I like this piece by @andrewdessler on the inequality that people face in dealing with #climateImpacts.
I'm afraid I too often say things like "we can adapt" without adding the obvious caveat "but there's going to be suffering which will overwhelmingly affect already disadvantaged groups".
The Danish #ClimateAtlas is at least an attempt to make sure everyone has the same high quality information freely available. But that doesn't mean the same capacity to act on it
(CSM used to be THE go to paper for outstanding journalism. They're still doing unique things like you can hit the 'quick read' button for a shorter version, and articles are sorted via values like #responsibility
How #Phoenix is dealing with helping the homeless during heat waves via their "Office of Heat Response, the first publicly funded unit of its kind to be established in the US."