• About
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: 40% of Fossil Fuels Now Under Development Must Stay in the Ground May 17, 2022
Rocky Mountain Glaciers ‘Past Tipping Point’, with Some Expected to Vanish by 2030 May 17, 2022
UK Activists Block Russian Oil Tanker From Docking in Essex May 17, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: Bid to Revive Doomed Nova Scotia LNG Project Collides with Germany’s Net-Zero Plans May 16, 2022
3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT May 16, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Climate News Network

Summer swelter will be no joy for US

April 28, 2016
Reading time: 3 minutes
Primary Author: Tim Radford

Summer swelter will be no joy for US

Temperatures in the US could become too hot to handle. Image: Marcos Vasconcelos via Flickr

 

Scientists warn that the current pleasures of warmer weather will pall for US citizens as climate change brings extreme temperature rises and unhealthy levels of atmospheric ozone.

LONDON, 28 April, 2016 – There could be good reasons why US citizens face the prospect of dramatic and potentially catastrophic global climate change with seeming calm. Right now, and for four-fifths of the people, the changes make their seasons more comfortable.

But scientists warn that this benign effect could be only temporary. A separate group of researchers has warned that as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, unhealthy “high ozone days” could increase in the US.

And a third team of scientists has just warned that for at least half the world’s population, the hot summers of the future will regularly be hotter than any their city, county or nation has experienced in the historical record.

Patrick Egan, professor of politics at New York University, and Megan Mullin, associate professor of environmental politics at Duke University, report in Nature journal that 80% of Americans live in counties where the weather is more pleasant than four decades ago.

Substantial rise

They analysed 40 years of day-to-day weather on a county-by-county basis, and found that January maximum temperatures had risen faster than July maximum temperatures, and summer humidity had declined.

Overall, winter temperatures in the mainland contiguous US had risen substantially, but summers so far had not become significantly more uncomfortable.

“Rising temperatures are ominous symptoms of global climate change, but Americans are experiencing them at times of the year when warmer days are welcomed,” Professor Egan says.

But when projected ahead, the picture changed: by 2100, around 88% of the US could experience conditions less preferable to weather in the recent past.

“Without serious efforts to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, year-round climates ultimately
will become much less pleasant”

“Weather patterns in recent decades have been a poor source of motivation for Americans to demand policies to combat the climate change problem,” Professor Mullin says. “But without serious efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, year-round climates ultimately will become much less pleasant.”

People could also experience more respiratory illness, and mortality levels could rise. In a hotter America, the number of days in which atmospheric ozone levels reach potentially injurious levels will also increase.

Loretta Mickley co-leader of the Atmospheric Chemistry Modelling Group at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and colleagues report in Geophysical Research Letters that episodes in which dangerous traces of the toxic form of oxygen are measured at street level could rise by between three and nine days a year.

“Typically, when the temperature increases, so does surface ozone,” Dr Mickley says. “Ozone production accelerates at high temperatures, and emissions of the natural components of ozone increase. High temperatures are also accompanied by weak winds, causing the atmosphere to stagnate. So the air just cooks and ozone levels build up.”

Feeling the heat

And higher temperatures are on the way. Brigitte Mueller, a researcher at Environment and Climate Change Canada, and colleagues report in Environmental Research Letters that within 20 years, half the world’s population could be feeling the big heat every second summer, even if the world does begin seriously to curtail global greenhouse gas emissions.

Hot summers, the scientists warn, “are now about 10 times more likely . . . in many regions of the world than they would have been in the absence of past greenhouse gas increases”.

Such warnings are not new: researchers have repeatedly predicted a greater frequency and intensity of extremes as global temperatures rise. The Canadian study, however, identifies regions at risk, and adds urgency to the research.

“The Mediterranean, Sahara, large parts of Asia and the Western US and Canada will be among the first regions for which hot summers will become the norm,” they conclude, “and this will occur within the next one to two decades.” – Climate News Network



in Climate News Network

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Smoke from wildfires kills thousands annually
Climate News Network

Smoke from wildfires kills thousands annually

September 24, 2021
62
Warming seas cut marine mammals’ survival chances
Climate News Network

Warming seas cut marine mammals’ survival chances

September 13, 2021
37
Earth’s future ‘hinges on UN Glasgow climate talks’
Climate News Network

Earth’s future ‘hinges on UN Glasgow climate talks’

September 10, 2021
26

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Mounting Drought Risk Confronts London, Other World Cities

Mounting Drought Risk Confronts London, Other World Cities

May 19, 2022
127
85,000-Hectare Fort Mac Wildfire Expected to Grow for Days

Six Traumatic Years After ‘The Beast’, Fort McMurray Remains Loyal to Big Oil

May 19, 2022
88
Ontario Contemplates ‘Ultra-Low Carbon’ Super-Agency

Ontario’s New Highway 413 Would Boost Emissions, Bake In ‘Auto-Dependent Sprawl’

May 19, 2022
64

BREAKING: 40% of Fossil Fuels Now Under Development Must Stay in the Ground

May 18, 2022
432
New Congressional Funding, Tax Credit Extensions Create ‘Enabling Conditions for Decarbonization’

ESG Becomes Latest ‘Acronym-Based Outrage’ in U.S. Republicans’ Culture Wars

May 19, 2022
63
‘New New Math’ Means Keeping Even More Fossils in the Ground: McKibben

U.S. Can’t Drill Its Way to Energy Security, Jenkins Warns

May 19, 2022
58

Recent Posts

Newfoundland Offers Suncor $175 Million to Restart Terra Nova Offshore Oilfield

Newfoundland Opens New Round of Offshore Oil Bidding

May 19, 2022
51
Farmers’ Mental Health Strained by Climate-Driven Weather Extremes

Farmers’ Mental Health Strained by Climate-Driven Weather Extremes

May 19, 2022
51
Calgary Company to Supply 180 MWh of Battery Capacity to Alberta Grid

Calgary Company to Supply 180 MWh of Battery Capacity to Alberta Grid

May 19, 2022
56
Customer Demand Pushes U.S. Utilities Toward Solar, Energy Services

Power Sector Giants Promote ‘Fair, Just Transition to Net-Zero’

May 19, 2022
51
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Haiyan

Fossils Liable For Human Rights Violations in Landmark Ruling by Philippines Commission

May 19, 2022
34
Food and Fashion Sectors Lead Widening Spread of Climate Careers

Food and Fashion Sectors Lead Widening Spread of Climate Careers

May 19, 2022
29
Next Post
Climate Change Will Shift Water Access, Curtail Power Production

Will Hydro Megaprojects Take Down a Third Provincial Premier?

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?