Global Warming or Climate Change

Full body immersion or cooling the extremities will help maintain healthy body temperatures An Iranian street vendor pours water on his face to cool off during a heatwave in Tehran, Iran, 02 August 2015. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA As we hit  high-heat season  in the Northern Hemisphere, it is useful to clarify tactics that can be used to help maintain healthy body temperatures. These tips are not commonly known and can be adopted by anyone, anywhere. While I am a climate scientist, my funded work is in the area of heat transfer, particularly in the human body. I work with medical companies to maintain healthy body temperatures during surgeries or other situations. I also deal with scald burns and I often serve in burn injury litigation. Here are some key tips. First, avoid hyperthermia in the first place – drink plenty of fluids, avoiding direct sunlight, trying to get a respite from heat each day, avoiding physical exertion during the hottest parts of the d...

Extreme heat can be fatal, particularly to young and elderly people, but it also causes everyone to slow down, meaning they cannot work as hard  AP Global warming will cost the world economy more than £1.5 trillion a year in lost productivity by 2030 as it becomes too hot to work in many jobs, according to a major new report. In just 14 years' time in India, where some jobs are already shared by two people to allow regular breaks from the heat, the bill will be £340bn a year. China is predicted to experience similar losses, while other countries among the worst affected include Indonesia (£188bn), Malaysia (£188bn) and Thailand (£113bn). The figures were published in a research paper launched at a forum on how to reduce the risks of severe weather events held in Kuala Lumpur by the  United Nations University  and  UN Development Programme . READ MORE Who is Andrea Leadsom? The new Defra secretary who once asked if climate change was real Climate cha...

Manmade climate change increased the risk of heat-related deaths by about 70% in Paris and 20% in London in 2003, research shows  A doctor carries ice cubes to help cool down a patient suffering from hyperthermia, during the Paris heatwave of August 2003. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images Hundreds of deaths in the searing European heatwave of 2003 can be attributed to manmade climate change, say scientists. Researchers calculated that 506 out of 735 heat-related deaths recorded  that summer in Paris  – the hottest city – were due to global warming. The impact of climate change was  less severe in London , where 64 out of 315 deaths were blamed on manmade effects. Scientists arrived at the figures after combining climate model simulations of the 2003 heatwave with a health impact assessment. They found that human-induced climate change increased the risk of heat-related deaths by about 70% in central Paris and 20% in  London . The...

W hen it comes to confronting climate change, the world’s cities are proving that there’s strength in unity. The historic climate agreement reached in Paris in December, which was approved by nearly all of the world’s nations, was made possible in part by the progress that cities have made by working together. Today, the two biggest coalitions of cities in the world – the EU-based Covenant of Mayors and the UN-backed Compact of Mayors – are forming an alliance to link more than 600 million city dwellers in the fight against climate change.  The UN headquarters in New York City. The UN has given cities an official role in international climate diplomacy.  Cities are key to solving the climate change challenge. They account for most of the  world’s carbon emissions , and mayors often have control over the largest sources. Just as importantly, mayors have strong incentives to attack those sources because steps that reduce carbon also improve public health and s...

Christiana Figueres tells business leaders that Brexit vote is not an obstacle to continued cooperation between Britain and the EU on global warming   ‘Climate change action is by now unstoppable. It is global,’ Christiana Figueres tells business leaders at a summit in London. Photograph: Matt Alexander/PA Britain must continue to be a world leader when it comes to acting on global warming despite the EU referendum result last week, the UN’s climate chief has urged. Christiana Figueres warned that should article 50 be triggered it would bring uncertainty for two years but cooperation on climate change could be one area of continuity between the UK and EU. “Should that be the case [article 50 being triggered], there is going be quite a lot of uncertainty, transition, volatility for at least two years,” she told an audience of business leaders in London on Tuesday. “However, let us remember that the Brexit vote was not about climate change, it was not about should the UK con...

World is almost certain to breach danger threshold for millions of vulnerable people, study finds Raised houses in Bangladesh protect inhabitants from rising flood risk (Flickr/Nasif Ahmed/UNDP Bangladesh) By  Megan Darby Scientists have bad news for people on the front line of climate change impacts. The 1.5C global warming limit vulnerable countries fought hard to include in the Paris Agreement may already be out of reach. 2 There is slim chance of stabilising temperature rise at that level without controversial negative emissions technology, according to a  study  published in Nature. “The window for limiting warming to below 1.5C with high probability and without temporarily exceeding that level already seems to have closed,” the report found. It is a blow for those living near the coast of Bangladesh or low-lying islands like Kiribati, which is  preparing for an exodus  as rising seas swallow homes. 1 Coral reefs dying and tro...