The World at 1°C — August ‘16
A bulletin of news from the front lines of the fight against climate change
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2015 State of the Climate report was released, revealing a stark panorama of climate impacts. For the first time since records began, the average annual global temperature exceeded pre-industrial levels by more than 1C. Every inhabited continent indicated record or near-record levels of heat. Sea surface temperatures and seawater levels reached milestones.
Despite countries agreeing in Paris to make efforts to keep warming below 1.5C, new analysis has also shown the limit is close to being broken.
As the Olympics dominates global attention, researchers have shown that rising temperatures will soon make it essentially impossible for most cities to the host the Summer Games.
Recently released figures show that the world’s largest development banks delivered less in climate finance in 2015 than in 2014.
Globally, the epidemic of climate-induced displacement gains force, with one person now displaced by disaster every second.
Yet there are also stories of hope: the number of climate-related legal actions is surging, communities have successfully kicked out agribusiness from their territory, and encouraging breakthroughs in solar technology have been made. The last weeks have also seen numerous actions to mark International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
We regrettably continue to lose defenders of environmental justice, such as Zafar Iqbal Lund, a Pakistani environmentalist and poet.
ASIA-PACIFIC
Russia has been combating an anthrax outbreak in the Siberian Yamal Peninsula, where a heat wave has thawed the permafrost, allowing for pathogens from old frozen carcasses to surface.
In India, at least 96 people have lost their lives in flooding across Bihar, Assam and Himachal Pradesh; over a million people displaced by the incessant water are now living in camps. Jammu and Kashmir state was also hit by landslides after intense rain. Fatal landslides have also wrought havoc in Nepal and Bangladesh.
In Pakistan, researchers have said that the country’s glaciers, the largest on earth outside the poles, risk melting away in the next twenty years.
Western Asia is gripped by a sweltering heat wave. Over the last month, temperatures in Kuwait and Iraq have reached 54 degrees Celsius; Baghdad has experienced temperatures of 43C and higher nearly every day for the last two months. Across Iraq, crops have wilted and hospitals have seen surges in people suffering from dehydration and heat exhaustion.
In Southeast Asia, Thailand continues to suffer the effects of a pummelling drought. In Myanmar, flooding has caused 2171 schools to shut across six regions and states; over 430,000 people have been displaced. Typhoon Nida, the second tropical storm to affect Vietnam this year, brought lethal torrential rains to the province of Lao Cai.
In Indonesia, a palm oil company has been ordered to pay a record for its role in Sumatran forest fires.
In Japan, concerns are rising around the threat climate change poses to the nation’s domestic agriculture.
The Red Cross has urged for greater investment across Asia in disaster risk reduction before it is “too late for many”.
CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA
In Mexico, tropical storm Earl triggered mudslides that left dozens dead. A study by two UN agencies has warned that climate change threatens the basis of food security in Latin America & the Caribbean. In Brazil, the host country of the Olympic games, social movements and Indigenous leaders have highlighted the precarious situation in the country for land defenders, as over 150 environmental defenders have been murdered since the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The UN’s Committee Against Torture has also criticised the Honduran government for not making progress in the investigation of the murder of Berta Cáceres.
NORTH AMERICA
The Canadian city of Fort McMurray, devastated by wildfires earlier in the year, was hit by torrential rains.
Record-breaking flooding lashed the states of Louisiana and Mississippi in the USA. Major forest fires in Southern California, a state which has also seen over 66 million trees lost in the last months to drought.
The state of New York has approved a clean energy standard which mandates that at least 50% of the state’s power must be sourced by renewables by 2030; this comes off the back of data showing that solar energy has grown 100-fold over the last decade in the United States.
AFRICA
According to a new UN report, two-thirds of the African continent is already “desert or dry-lands”.
The region continues to be blighted by arguably its worst drought in 50 years. Lesotho, one of the worst hit countries, is estimated to harvest this year 25,000 tonnes of maize, a stark drop from last year’s 78,000-tonne haul. In Morocco, as many as 175,000 workers have lost their jobs in the farming sector this year due to the severe drought.
Thirteen of Sudan’s eighteen provinces have experienced flash flooding, with the Nile reaching historic levels; fears of starvation and outbreaks of disease abound.
EUROPE
Torrential rain and flash flooding in Macedonia left dozens dead. Major forest fires have raged across Portugal, Spain, Greece, Montenegro and France, forcing thousands to flee their homes.
For more stories follow us online:
Demandclimatejustice.org
www.facebook.com/ClimateJustice
Twitter: @DClimateJustice
