The Apocalypse Bulletim is a monthly collection of news, articles and research related to the climate crisis. In September, the highlight goes to the havoc in Pakistan, that got 1/3 of its territory flooded. This was due to the melting of the glaciers, which compose the country’s landscape, and the worst monsoon of the decade.
Havoc in Pakistan
First came the floods. Now, Pakistan’s children face a new disaster. CNN 09/25/2022
Pakistan’s estimated economic loss due to massive floods might be over $40 billion. The Times of India 09/13/2022
Pakistan’s melting glaciers are ‘erupting’ and worsening floods. CNN 09/02/2022
Vegetable prices spike in flood-hit Pakistan as food crisis looms. Channel News Asia 09/01/2022
Pakistan’s deadly floods have created a massive 100km-wide inland lake, satellite images show. 9news.com.au 09/01/2022
Hurricanes and Typhoons
Hurricanes are becoming more dangerous. Here’s why. As human activity warms up the planet, the extra heat isn’t just confined to the ocean’s surface — it extends hundreds of meters deep, providing extra heat energy for hurricanes to use for fuel (CNN 09/27/2022). Hurricane Ian’s rapid intensification is part of a trend for the most dangerous storms (CNN 09/28/2022).
Hurricane Ian devastates SW Florida: Sanibel Causeway will need to be rebuilt. FOX13 News 09/29/2022 ⇓
More than 15 planes were damaged at North Perry Airport by a tornado. NBC 09/27/2022
Philippines on red alert as Typhoon Noru roars in. CNN 09/25/2022
Fiona knocks out power and washes away homes in Atlantic Canada. CBS News 09/24/2022
Hurricane Fiona in pictures. CTV News Atlantic 09/24/2022
Typhoon Talas lashes Japan, setting off landslides with more rains to come. The Guardian 09/24/2022
Hurricane Fiona closes in on Bermuda as Category 4 storm; Thousands in Puerto Rico still without power. CBS News 09/22/2022
Hurricane Fiona deluges Puerto Rico; Typhoon Nandamol hits Japan. Yale Climate 09/18/2022
Japan issues special typhoon warning as ‘unprecedented’ storm approaches. Reuters 09/17/2022
Typhoon Hinnamnor, a very large and powerful tropical cyclone that impacted Japan, Philippines and South Korea. Wikipedia
Storms and floods
The havoc in Pakistan is just one example of what is happening around the world due to climate crisis.
As storm-battered Western Alaska takes stock of damage and begins cleanup, officials pledge help. Up and down Alaska’s Bering Sea coast, the scope of destruction left by a historic storm is becoming clear. The remnants of a typhoon in the Pacific struck about 1,000 miles off the west coast of Alaska. Anchorage Daily News 09/20/2022
Storm lashes Alaskan shore, bringing severe coastal flooding and prompting evacuations. CNN 09/18/2022
STORM OF THE CENTURY: Alaska declares ‘state of disaster’ as Typhoon Merbok bears down on state.
The typhoon ‘has continued to produce a potentially historic and long-duration storm surge,’ according to NWS (Meaww News 09/18/2022). See also the Twitter from National Weather Service.
‘Never this severe’: Alaska residents flee from flooding as powerful storm slams state. CBC News Canadá 09/17/2022
Heavy Rain In Lucknow Leaves Behind Flooded Streets, Broken Trees. Outlook India 09/16/2022
‘Water bomb’ kills at least ten people as 16 inches of rain falls in Italy’s Marche region in just two hours, sparking catastrophic floods. Daily Mail 09/16/2022
Southern California mudslides damage homes, carry away cars. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Perla Halbert, whose feet were caked in mud after trying to walk to her home. AP News 09/14/2022
Nigeria battling floods ‘beyond control’ as warning given of dams overflowing. The Guardian 09/19/2022
At least 16 dead as heavy rains trigger landslides in Uganda. CNN 09/08/2022
Record rain overwhelming city canals (Bangkok Post 09/08/2022). See also this video in Youtube: “Hell has fallen on Thailand”.
Torrential storms in southern France. The downpours were accompanied by strong electrical activity, hailstones and wind gusts of up to 100km/h. Euronews 09/07/2022
Colombia – Floods in Caldas Leave 3 Dead, Thousands Affected. Floodlist.com 09/07/2022
India’s tech hub Bengaluru flooded after days of torrential rains. Al Jazeera 09/06/2022
US issues flood warning to 50 million people over ‘giant rain cloud’. CNN 09/06/2022
48 hours after the water disaster that befell the villages along the Stryama river, the situation remains dire. The huge amount of rain, which literally flooded several villages in Karlovo region, destroyed agricultural production and forced the evacuation of people, reports BNT (Bulgarian National Television). Sofia News Agency 09/04/2022
Thaw
Just like the glaciers in Pakistan, the melting is widespread.
Montain glacier in Chile’s Patagonia collapses amid high temperatures. Reuters 09/13/2022
Why are the glaciers in southeast Tibet melting so fast? The researchers found that most of the mass loss acceleration was due to a shift of some of the summer precipitation from snow to rain, limiting the accumulation of snow. Phys.org 09/08/2022
‘Doomsday glacier,’ which could raise sea level by several feet, is holding on ‘by its fingernails,’ scientists say. CNN 09/06/2022
Switzerland’s Glaciers Are Becoming a Front-Row Seat to Climate Destruction. Bloomberg 09/05/2022 ⇓
A rocky Alpine path between two glaciers in Switzerland is emerging for what the local ski resort says is the first time in at least 2,000 years after the hottest European summer on record. Reuters 09/11/2022
A melt spike in September? National Snow & Ice Data Center 09/12/2022 ⇓
Heat waves
The heat wave in East Asia is intensifying today. Twitter Extreme Temperatures Around the World 09/30/2022
Tracking Dangerous Heat in the U.S. New York Times 09/15/2022
Brasília breaks new heat record for the year by registering 35ºC this Tuesday. Metrópoles 09/13/2022
Global warming raised chance of extreme heat during Japan summer by 240 times. The Mainichi 09/09/2022
Hottest summer since 1901 – preliminary analysis. Based on National Weather Service measurements, the summer of 2022 was 2.0 degrees Celsius warmer than average, making it the hottest since 1901. Meteo Hungary 09/05/2022
California swelters through a Labor Day heat wave, stretching its electricity resources. New York Times 09/05/2022
Drought
Historic drought continues in France despite recent rains. Le Monde 09/16/2022
Spain’s Doñana National Park dries up completely. The reserve’s last permanent freshwater lake, which had long resisted drought and illegal wells, has now disappeared. El País 09/05/2022
Cantareira, the dam that supplies São Paulo, with the worst level of the last 7 years, 33%. Experts say the ideal level for that time would be 40%. G1 09/01/2022
Wildfires
Dozens of buildings burn as gusty winds fan California wildfire. NBC News 09/13/2022
Air quality worsens as 94 fires burn across Western US. CNN 09/11/2022
18 wildfires burning across Oregon, Washington force evacuations; thousands without power. CBS News 09/10/2022
Devastating wildfires and false autumn puts UK wildlife in ‘uncharted territory’. The Independent 09/10/2022
Kazakhstan battles huge wildfire in northern forest. Reuters 09/05/2022
Mill Fire blazes around Weed in northern California as thousands flee. Washington Post 09/03/2022
California wildfires erupted Wednesday in rural areas, racing through bone-dry brush and prompting evacuations as the state sweltered under a heat wave. CBS News 09/01/2022
Climate crisis and Economy
China’s record-breaking drought hits major rice-growing regions, risks for drinking water and animal conservation. South China Morning Post 09/21/2022
White House surges aid to hurricane-hit Puerto Rico on a haunting Hurricane Maria five-year anniversary . CNN 09/20/2022
India’s rice export ban: The Asian countries set to be hit hard — and those that’ll profit. …production has decreased by 5.6% year-on-year as of Sept 2. in light of below-average monsoon rainfall, which affected harvest, Nomura said. CNBC 09/19/2022
Argentina corn planting stalled as ‘great drought’ fears rise. Reuters 09/15/2022
France bracing for ‘catastrophic’ food shortages following drought, farmers and unions warn. Morning Star 09/09/2022
Worst drought in living memory threatens the world’s olive oil supply. It is used to temperatures regularly hitting 40 degrees Celsius (Andaluzia, Spain), but not in May, when the flowers start to bloom. CNN 09/09/2022
Countries growing 70% of world’s food face ‘extreme’ heat risk by 2045. France 24 09/08/2022
Withered vines and parched soil: How climate change is changing the foods farmers produce. Irish Examiner 09/01/2022
China’s worst heatwave on record destroys power and food supplies. 9 News 09/01/2022
More climate crisis
Analysis: Nord Stream gas leaks raise climate fears, but impact hard to quantify. Reuters 09/28/2022
Italy’s plan to save Venice from sinking. BBC 09/27/2022
Alaska’s Newest Lakes Are Belching Methane. NASA 09/22/2022
With global warming, invasive species are invading the Mediterranean. Le Monde 09/19/2022
“Climate emergency creates trauma for young people”. For Halla Tómasdóttir, the current generation looks ahead and sees no better life than their parents. Valor Econômico 09/19/2022
Unprecedented toxic algal bloom kills thousands of fish across the San Francisco Bay. Marketplace 09/16/2022
Patagonia’s founder transfers ownership into two entities to help fight the climate crisis. CNN 09/15/2022
Why plastic is building up at recycling centers and catching fire. Critics say beverage companies should be doing more to make their products more recyclable. ABC News 09/15/2022
Middle East faces crisis as temperatures rise ‘twice as fast as global average’. The Independent 09/13/2022
India’s Renewing its Push for Climate Disaster Compensation. A year of extreme heat and floods has given new life to India’s demand that rich nations pay for climate change. Bloomberg 09/12/2022
Europe is sacrificing its ancient forests for energy. The New York Times 09/07/2022
Water is in short supply. Markets should pay attention. Bloomberg 09/07/2022
Southern Ocean takes on the heat of climate change. In the past 50 years, the oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat caused by our carbon dioxide emissions. Phys.org 09/07/2022
CNN 09/06/2022 – More than 700 children die in Somali nutrition centers, says UN. The Horn of Africa region is on track for the fifth consecutive season of low rainfall. The 2011 famine in Somalia claimed more than 250,000 lives, most of them children.
The Amazon lost the equivalent of ten times the state of Rio de Janeiro in 37 years, points out MapBiomas. The survey revealed that 44.5 million hectares were converted to agriculture. G1 09/03/2022
Arctic Lakes Are Vanishing a Century Earlier Than Predicted. Yale Environment 360 09/02/2022
South African court bans offshore oil and gas exploration by Shell. The Guardian 09/01/2022
California approves a wave of agressive new climate measures. New York Times 09/01/2022