GLOBAL warming is real!
World braves one of the worst summers; second hottest since 1880
IT’S not just Pakistan that is baking. Globally, this seems to be one of the worst summers in recorded history, a US report said on Wednesday. The global average temperature for May was the second hottest ever since 1880 (the year records were first compiled), US National Climatic Data Centre (NCDC) has said. Only 2010 witnessed a worse May.
The NCDC said such a hot May was never recorded in the northern hemisphere.
No scientist will pin it on human-induced climate change - it is scientifically untenable to do so - but many affirm that these extreme weather phenomena are along the predicted lines of rise in global temperatures.
Here at home, the Pakistanis have been braving high temperatures as the effect of the rising mercury has been compounded by the prolonged power outages. According to the Met Department, the whole country including some parts of Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are under the severe grip of heat with the mercury reaching to 45 degree Celsius in Islamabad and Punjab despite forecasting of rains in the country since last week. While thunderstorms and gusty winds are expected from Friday (today) in the northern areas of the country, the rest of the country would remain under the spell of this heat wave.
The temperature in some parts of the Sindh province rose upto 47 Celsius during daytime and acute wave of scorching heat will remain continue in Punjab and Balochistan. The latter seems to have been the worse hit by heat as temperatures rose as high as 49 degree Celsius there. Reports coming in said that at least 14 people had fainted in different areas of the province due to the scorching heat. 10 people fainted in Dera Murad Jamali and four in Sibi after the Mercury rose to 49 C on Tuesday. The 20-hours prolonged power outages on daily basis have also increased the woes of people. Hospital sources said that hundreds of patients suffering from sunstrokes and heat wave have been brought to hospitals particularly in Eastern Balochistan.
The Pakistani have it bad but so does the rest of the world. The misery of rising heat is being felt worldwide with “normal weather” systems in disarray. If large areas of the western Himalayas in Uttarakhand have suffered raging forest fires, so has the US - more than 8 lakh hectares have been engulfed in flames. The March-May period for the US has been the hottest ever.
For India, the looming possibility of El Nino dulling the monsoon rains in JulyAugust only means things could get worse. There is half a chance that the El Nino phenomenon will pick up intensity and hit the tail of the monsoon. Thirteen of the 20 times El Nino has been recorded, it has dimmed the intensity of the monsoon, causing widespread drought. Already, the northwest region of India has suffered a rainfall deficit worse than the rest of India.
Brazil is in the midst of its worst drought in five decades with more than 1,000 towns suffering. Heavy downpours and unheard of hail has hit China and flash floods have ravaged crops in Ethiopia.
The Eurasian snow cover extent has been recorded at its smallest ever for the month of May since such records were maintained for the first time in 1967. The cover was 2.67 million sq km below average in May, the US NCDC said.
The southern hemisphere, where winters prevail at the moment, too has been recording extremes like never before. The Australian winter has been exceptionally cold, with the fifth coolest winter minimum temperature in over half a century of record keeping. The Antarctic sea ice extent has gone above the 1979-2000 average. In contrast, the Arctic sea ice recorded a much smaller than average extent for the same period.
The developed world is naturally better placed to adapt and manage in such extreme weather though even the resilience of societies with better financial and technological abilities has been tested. For developing countries such as India and Pakistan, the lack of resources to deploy in cases of emergency is too evident.