<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/04/schools-close-and-crops-wither-as-historic-heatwave-hits-south-east-asia>
"Thousands of schools in the Philippines have stopped in-person classes due to
unbearable heat. In Indonesia, prolonged dry weather has caused rice prices to
soar. In Thailand’s waters, temperatures are so high that scientists fear coral
could be destroyed.
A “historic heatwave” is being experienced across south-east Asia, according to
Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian. In updates posted
on X, he said heat that was unprecedented for early April had been recorded at
monitoring stations across the region this week, including in Minbu, in central
Myanmar, where 44C was recorded – the first time in south-east Asia’s climatic
history that such high temperatures had been reached so early in the month. In
Hat Yai, in Thailand’s far south, 40.2 C was reached, an all-time record, while
Yên Châu in north-west Vietnam hit 40.6C, unprecedented for this time of year.
The latest intense weather follows warnings last month by the World
Meteorological Organization that the region had also been “gripped by severe
heat conditions” in February when temperatures frequently soared into the
high-30s – well above the seasonal average. It attributed the scorching weather
to human-induced climate change, as well as the El Niño event, which brings
hotter, drier conditions to the region.
“The level of heat the globe has experienced over the last 12 months, both on
the land and in the ocean has surprised science,” said Prof Benjamin Horton,
the director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore. “We always knew we were
going to be headed in this direction with our increasing greenhouse gases, but
the fact that we’re shattering all these records in 2023, and 2024, is perhaps
slightly ahead of time.”
“We’re just not prepared. There’s very few, if any, places in the world that
are resilient to this type of heat,” he said, adding that societies needed to
adapt."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
