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A heat wave, sometimes known as extreme heat, is a period of abnormally hot weather. High humidity often accompanies heat waves. This is especially the case in oceanic climate countries. Definitions vary but are similar. We usually measure a heat wave relative to the usual climate in the area and to normal temperatures for the season. Temperatures that people from a hotter climate consider normal can be called a heat wave in a cooler area. This would be the case if the warm temperatures are outside the normal climate pattern for that area. Heat waves have become more frequent, and more intense over land, almost everywhere since the 1950s. This is due to climate change.
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Climate change in Africa is an increasingly serious threat as Africa is among the most vulnerable continents to the effects of climate change. Some sources even classify Africa as "the most vulnerable continent on Earth". This vulnerability is driven by a range of factors that include weak adaptive capacity, high dependence on ecosystem goods for livelihoods, and less developed agricultural production systems. The risks of climate change on agricultural production, food security, water resources and ecosystem services will likely have increasingly severe consequences on lives and sustainable development prospects in Africa. With high confidence, it was projected by the IPCC in 2007 that in many African countries and regions, agricultural production and food security would probably be severely compromised by climate change and climate variability. Managing this risk requires an integration of mitigation and adaptation strategies in the management of ecosystem goods and services, and the agriculture production systems in Africa.
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Climate change in Pakistan is a major issue for the country. Pakistan is highly vulnerable to climate change. As with the changing climate in South Asia as a whole, the climate of Pakistan has changed over the past several decades, with significant impacts on the environment and people. In addition to increased heat, drought and extreme weather in parts of the country, the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas has impacted some of the important rivers of Pakistan. Between 1999 and 2018, Pakistan ranked 5th in the countries affected by extreme weather caused by climate change. Pakistan is prone to a range of natural disasters, including cyclones, floods, drought, intense rainfall, and earthquakes. According to scientific research, climate change played a substantial role in the devastating floods of 2022, which had a direct impact on over 30 million people in Pakistan, resulting in the loss of lives, damage to public infrastructure, and displacement from homes. Climate change poses a significant menace to Pakistan's economy and security.
There are numerous effects of climate change on agriculture, many of which are making it harder for agricultural activities to provide global food security. Rising temperatures and changing weather patterns often result in lower crop yields due to water scarcity caused by drought, heat waves and flooding. These effects of climate change can also increase the currently-rare risk of several regions suffering simultaneous crop failures, which would have significant consequences for the global food supply. Many pests and plant diseases are also expected to either become more prevalent or to spread to new regions. The world's livestock are also expected to be affected by many of the same issues, from greater heat stress to animal feed shortfalls and the spread of parasites and vector-borne diseases.
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Lesley Ann Hughes is an Australian academic and climate scientist. Hughes is Distinguished Professor of Biology and Pro Vice-Chancellor at Macquarie University. She is also Director, Biodiversity Node, at the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage Climate Adaptation Research Hub and a Councillor at the independent Climate Council. From 2011 to 2013, she was a Commissioner of the Australian Government’s Climate Commission. Hughes was one of five Australian Lead Authors who worked on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth & Fifth Assessment Reports in 2007. She works at the Centre for Smart Green Cities. Upon accepting her Leadership award in 2019, Hughes spoke on having hope and optimism in the face of climate change. Reasons included "Money, technology, the law, governments, people power, and kids'. Her full speech can be found at the Australian Museum blog website.
A marine heatwave is a period of abnormally high ocean temperatures relative to the average seasonal temperature in a particular marine region. Marine heatwaves are caused by a variety of factors, including shorter term weather phenomena such as fronts, intraseasonal events, annual, or decadal (10-year) modes like El Niño events, and longer term changes like climate change. Marine heatwaves can have biological impacts on ecosystems at individual, population, and community levels. MHWs have led to severe biodiversity changes such as coral bleaching, sea star wasting disease, harmful algal blooms, and mass mortality of benthic communities. Unlike heatwaves on land, marine heatwaves can extend for millions of square kilometers, persist for weeks to months or even years, and occur at subsurface levels.
Opha Pauline Dube or Pauline Dube is a Botswanan environmental scientist and Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Botswana. She co-authored the IPCC's Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C. She is one of fifteen scientists creating the 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report for the United Nations.
References
- ↑ "Professor Jean Palutikof | NCCARF - National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility". Archived from the original on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
- ↑ "Jean Palutikof". Australian Water School. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
- ↑ "Jean Palutikof". 15 January 2014. Archived from the original on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
- 1 2 "Jean Palutikof: Lecturers: The William T. Patten Foundation: Indiana University Bloomington". The William T. Patten Foundation. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
- ↑ "Professor Jean Palutikof | NCCARF - National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility". Archived from the original on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
- ↑ "Climate and health: managing heat stress | News". Wellcome. 24 May 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
- ↑ "International climate change scientist Jean Palutikof kicks off Patten Foundation Lecture Series: IU News Room: Indiana University". Archived from the original on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
- ↑ Barnett, Jon; Evans, Louisa S.; Gross, Catherine; Kiem, Anthony S.; Kingsford, Richard T.; Palutikof, Jean P.; Pickering, Catherine M.; Smithers, Scott G. (2015). "From barriers to limits to climate change adaptation: path dependency and the speed of change". Ecology and Society. 20 (3). ISSN 1708-3087.
- ↑ Beniston, Martin; Stephenson, David B.; Christensen, Ole B.; Ferro, Christopher A. T.; Frei, Christoph; Goyette, Stéphane; Halsnaes, Kirsten; Holt, Tom; Jylhä, Kirsti; Koffi, Brigitte; Palutikof, Jean; Schöll, Regina; Semmler, Tido; Woth, Katja (1 May 2007). "Future extreme events in European climate: an exploration of regional climate model projections". Climatic Change. 81 (1): 71–95. doi:10.1007/s10584-006-9226-z. hdl: 20.500.11850/5518 . ISSN 1573-1480.
- ↑ Palutikof, J P; Brabson, B B; Lister, D H; Adcock, S T (1999). "A review of methods to calculate extreme wind speeds". Meteorological Applications. 6 (2): 119–132. doi: 10.1017/S1350482799001103 .
- ↑ Beerling, D. J. (1993). "The nature and causes of climate change. Assessing the long term future. C. M. Goodess, J. P. Palutikof and T. D. Davies. Publisher Belhaven Press 1992 (248 pp) ISBN 1 85293 299 5 £39.95". Journal of Quaternary Science. 8 (2): 179–179. doi:10.1002/jqs.3390080210.
- ↑ Boulter, Sarah; Palutikof, Jean; Karoly, David John; Guitart, Daniela, eds. (2013). Natural Disasters and Adaptation to Climate Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-01016-1.
- ↑ Ash, Andrew J.; Smith, Mark Stafford; Parry, Martin; Waschka, Marie; Guitart, Daniela; Palutikof, Jean P.; Boulter, Sarah L., eds. (22 March 2013). Climate Adaptation Futures (1st ed.). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-470-67496-3.