HAVE YOU ever wondered what it feels like to be inside a pressure cooker? For the past month and a half, millions across the northern hemisphere have found themselves trapped in such an environment for days, with many struggling for their lives.
The conditions persisted for nearly three weeks in the northwestern US and western Canada, which the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) termed “exceptional and dangerous”. These are the planet’s colder geographies where people have designed their dwellings to ensure warming. As temperatures rapidly soared and reached dangerous highs of more than 45oC on consecutive days and overnight lows stayed higher than the average daytime highs offering little recovery time from the heat, several regions reported a sudden increase in deaths, particularly among the elderly; incidences of wildfire; melted train cables and buckled roads; breakdown of public utilities; and collapse of power grids.
In Canada’s British Columbia province, known for its Pacific coastline, snowcapped mountain peaks, and glacial fields, heat records kept tumbling for three consecutive days in the village of Lytton until June 29, when it became one of the hottest places on Earth. Temperatures reached an astounding 49.6oC that day. Before people could make sense of the situation in this picturesque mountain village on the confluence of two rivers, a wildfire destroyed almost every house and building. With two reported deaths, the village of 250 residents is now deserted. “It’s in the province of British Columbia, it’s home to the Rocky Mountains, Glacier National Park and yet we are seeing temperatures more typical of the Middle East [West Asia] or North Africa,” said Clare Nullis, spokesperson, WMO.
この記事は Down To Earth の July 16, 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Down To Earth の July 16, 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
THE ALCHEMY OF EMOTIONS - SL'OTH
As with all personality traits, laziness is a combination of genes and environment
THE AL'CHEMY OF EMOTIONS - WRATH
Anger is an emotional programme, a part of natural selection that helps us bargain for better treatment
THE AL'CHEMY OF EMOTIONS - GLUTTONY
We have been captured by food and it is driving us to do something that is arguably not good for us
THE AL'CHEMY OF EMOTIONS - ENVY
Envy gives people a fundamental desire for a higher social rank
THE AL'CHEMY OF EMOTIONS-L'UST
Love, lust, attachments are basic brain circuits. They are too primitive a system and will never change
THE AL'CHEMY OF EMOTIONS - GREED
Evolutionary biology sees greed as a way to increase your chances of survival
THE AL'CHEMY OF EMOTIONS
I felt for the tormented whirlwinds Damned for their carnal sins Committed when they let their passions rule their reason
INVISIBLE THREAT
Significant presence of microplastics in Puducherry’s agricultural soil raises concerns for soil and crop health
Feeding off each other
VEGETARIAN MOVEMENTS IN SOUTH ASIA AND THE WEST GREW WITH MUTUAL SUPPORT AND VALIDATION
India's unhealthy patent amendments
Despite strong pleas, the Modi regime has changed the rules to impose a cost on those who challenge faulty patents