Extreme Heat Continues To Scorch Large Parts of Asia (straitstimes.com) 37
Large swathes of Asia are sweltering through a heatwave that has topped temperature records from Myanmar to the Philippines and forced millions of children to stay home from school. From a report: In India, record temperatures have triggered a deadly heatwave and concerns about voter turnout in the nation's marathon election. Extreme heat has also forced Bangladesh to close all schools across the country. Extreme temperatures have also been recorded in Myanmar and Thailand, while huge areas of the Philippines are suffering from a drought. Experts say climate change has made heatwaves more frequent, longer and more intense, while the El Nino weather phenomenon is also driving this year's exceptionally warm weather.
Approximate voter turnout data after polls closed on April 26 in India -- when stage two of the nation's seven-stage general election took place -- put voter turnout at 61 per cent. This was lower than the 65 per cent in the first phase, and 68 per cent in the second phase five years ago. Among the states that headed to the polls last week was Kerala in the south, where media reports on April 29 said that at least two people -- a 90-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man -- were suspected to have died of heatstroke. Temperatures in Kerala soared to 41.9 deg C, nearly 5.5 deg C above normal temperatures. At least two people have also died in India's eastern state of Odisha, where temperatures hit 44.9 deg C on April 28 -- the highest recorded in April. In neighbouring Bangladesh, students will continue to stay home this week, after schools across the country were ordered shut on April 29. A two-judge bench of the country's High Court passed an order directing all primary and secondary schools and madrasahs (Islamic schools) nationwide to remain closed till May 5, affecting an estimated 32 million students.
Approximate voter turnout data after polls closed on April 26 in India -- when stage two of the nation's seven-stage general election took place -- put voter turnout at 61 per cent. This was lower than the 65 per cent in the first phase, and 68 per cent in the second phase five years ago. Among the states that headed to the polls last week was Kerala in the south, where media reports on April 29 said that at least two people -- a 90-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man -- were suspected to have died of heatstroke. Temperatures in Kerala soared to 41.9 deg C, nearly 5.5 deg C above normal temperatures. At least two people have also died in India's eastern state of Odisha, where temperatures hit 44.9 deg C on April 28 -- the highest recorded in April. In neighbouring Bangladesh, students will continue to stay home this week, after schools across the country were ordered shut on April 29. A two-judge bench of the country's High Court passed an order directing all primary and secondary schools and madrasahs (Islamic schools) nationwide to remain closed till May 5, affecting an estimated 32 million students.
Re: (Score:1, Informative)
Well, it is unfortunate the world has spawned you.
Re:Solar Cycle 25. (Score:4, Informative)
https://xkcd.com/1732/ [xkcd.com]
Temperature Conversions ... (Score:5, Informative)
41.9 degrees Celsius is approximately 107.42 degrees Fahrenheit.
44.9 degrees Celsius is approximately 112.42 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Thank you.
I was about to comment that Slashdot is a US centric site, and if someone posts an article like this, they really NEED to translate the temperatures into F too, as that per usual, you're lucky for Slashdotters to read the whole summary, you can't then expect for us all to open up another tab and start googling for a damned translation of the temperatures.
40C doesn't
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Well, I certainly can do the conversion (subtract 32 ; multiply by 5 over nine, if I recall properly), but when I see "Fahrenheit", I think, "Some redneck septic who can't speak properly, and therefore isn't worth listening to." You see, it cuts both ways. "used to" does not equal either "resigned to" or "willing to".
This may (or may not) be true, but w
Re: Temperature Conversions ... (Score:1)
Death valley has been a lot higher
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Yes it has. And people who live there know about that and have experience surviving in that heat.
We've had temperatures here in West Australia pushing the 50c range (I *think* thats a bit over 120f in american moon units) and the people in those regions know about that sort of heat and that going outside=death.
The problem is when you start getting temps in places where people ARENT used to it.
Here we used to laugh our heads off at reports of 30c (86f) UK heat waves and old people dying in that heat. Thats a
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Thank you for your response. I also provide alternate links to paywalled sources as well as some abbreviations. Like you, I think those translations should take place at the source.
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40C means something to me:
"Why are electric motors rated at 104F? That's an odd number - oh, never mind, it's a nice round 40C."
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Thank you. I can work with Celsius, but never developed an intuitive feel for it. In this case, however, I knew that 98.6F=37C, meaning that 40C is a tad above normal body temperature.
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41.9 degrees Celsius is approximately 107.42 degrees Fahrenheit.
44.9 degrees Celsius is approximately 112.42 degrees Fahrenheit.
Here in Arizona, these temperatures are called...May.
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You're not comparing apples to apples. In Arizona, do you experience the heat indexes 15+ degrees warmer due to humidity?
Because in India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, they regularly experience relative humidity of 100%. Last I heard, Arizona doesn't ever come anywhere close to half that.
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What is that figure in Phoenix?
Re:Temperature Conversions ... (Score:4, Interesting)
And if you haven't experienced these temperatures you need to understand that those not accustomed to them can't do much of anything when it's that hot. I've experienced close to the higher of these two temperatures in Death Valley, and mild exertion was not sustainable. It was life threatening without an air conditioned car to get back to. The lower of these comps to being in my house when there was no air conditioning. What happens after a while is you're just consumed with keeping cool and can't focus on much else. A spray bottle and a fan helps a little, but if you're not wet and the air isn't dry, then there's a point where the fan stops acting to cool you and actually heats you up--it's a low-grade convection oven effect.
Motorcyclists are aware of this, they even have a chart out there somewhere that shows the break-even point where the wind stops cooling you and starts baking... but dang, all the links that I could find easily are badly enshittified. Just trust me, bikers will feel slightly *warmer* when riding at highway speeds in temperatures above 95F.
Some people can actually acclimate to these temperatures. They generally know who they are. The body is an amazing thing, but I'm sure even those people have their limits.
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Soaking your shirt before you start helps a bit for a while.
Re: Temperature Conversions ... (Score:1)
I don't know much about India. Is this the first time they closed schools due to heat?
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You first.
Re: maybe they'll die (Score:1)
OK, 50% from both sides, starting with you.
More nuclear fission power plants? (Score:3, Interesting)
Now that we've established global warming as a problem should we not consider taking on a different path to address it? A path considered too dangerous before but with the threat of global warming taking on new levels might not seem so dangerous by comparison any more?
The world got real scared of nuclear power because of Three Mile Island, a fear that solidified because of Chernobyl. This fear appeared to fade but then a tsunami hit Fukushima. But just how much real damage did that cause? Was that damage enough to abandon nuclear power when faced with the threat of global warming? It seems to me that we would be better off in the long run with a Chernobyl level nuclear power accident every decade or so than take on the far great global risk of global warming.
Here's an important detail that appears to be missed about Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and especially Fukushima. All of these reactors were built on technology out of the 1960s, the Fukushima power plant is older than Chernobyl even though it blew up decades later. Nobody has built a reactor like those for a very long time, and most of the reactors built on similar designs have been shut down by now. They are considered 2nd generation nuclear power, and anything 2nd generation still in operation today have had safety upgrades. There's not been a major failure of a 3rd generation nuclear power plant yet, and with 4th generation nuclear reactors being planned we would see even greater safety with much lower costs.
We have three options right now. We can keep going as we are, burning fossil fuels, and expect to see more global warming. We can build nuclear power plants to replace fossil fuels and keep the lights on. Or, we can have energy shortages. Since I doubt people will tolerate energy shortages for long there's going to be new nuclear fission power plants being built (3rd or 4th generation) or there's going to be more fossil fuels burned, more CO2 emissions, and more global warming.
In another fine article featured on Slashdot I see the Biden administration chose energy shortages because they introduced policies to encourage "clean energy" but made no mention of nuclear fission as part of what is defined as clean energy. So, consider that policy when election season comes up later this year.
Oh, there's likely to be someone that claims some future technology will give us a 4th option. Well, that's in the future and we live in the present. As of right now we need to choose from 3 options, and only 3 options, fossil fuels, nuclear fission, or energy shortages. Someone will want to claim that choosing renewable energy is not the same as choosing energy shortages. Okay then, how's that choice worked out for Germany so far? I'm pretty sure the USA is shipping all kinds of LNG into Germany because their investment in wind and solar has failed to meet their energy needs. At some point it is insanity to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result.
Re:More nuclear fission power plants? (Score:4, Interesting)
It was never the case that the public being scared caused nuclear to be outlawed, or even *discouraged*. The problem is that investors are scared by the high capital costs, long construction times, and uncertainties about future electricity prices.
This is why nuclear requires government subsidies, either in straight grants, loan guarantees or price guarantees. It's no coincidence that the only country in the world that did a serious nuclear crash program was France, where the electric system was *nationalized*. They didn't go in big for nuclear to make a profit, for them it was a national security issue in result of the OPEC oil embargos. As soon as France privatized its electric system, nuclear construction stalled, just like it did in every other privatized system.
In any case, even if we *were* to underwrite a crash nuclear program, it's neither necessary nor desirable to put *all* our eggs in the nuclear basket. One place we can put investment in is a modernized grid. This will not only help renewable sources like wind and solar, it will be a huge boon to nuclear plants, eliminating questionable siting choices that were driven by the need to locate the plant within 50 miles of customers.
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To be clear, I think nuclear can and should play a key role in our response to anthropogenic global warming. I just think we shouldn't (a) talk about it like it is *the* answer in and of itself and (b) misunderstand the full breadths of risks and challenges, the most difficult of which are likely to be economic rather than political objections by environmentalists.
Ss you point out, climate change is in effect an economic externality that fossil fuels get a free ride on. This is a key reason for nuclear p
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The other problem with nuclear is that we need solutions that can be used world-wide. There are billions of people looking towards a Western lifestyle, and if they all do what we did and burn vast amounts of fossil fuels to get it, we are screwed. So we need to demonstrate a higher quality of life with net zero emissions, and one that every country can adopt.
Since we aren't going to allow nuclear power in every country due to proliferation, and since many of them don't want it for various reasons (cost, lac
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Now that we've established global warming as a problem should we not consider taking on a different path to address it?
Indeed. Please propose a path that actually can make a meaningful impact within the next 2 decades. Nuclear isn't it. Sorry. This isn't a technical limitation. It's a resource one.
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Except for the part where there is zero climate "emergency" and it is all a bunch of hysteria driven by a bunch of political BS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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I gave up on arguing about global warming a long time ago, preferring instead to just concede the issue and discuss solutions. We can agree on the solution without agreeing on where the problem lies.
Consider a patient arrives in a busy emergency room with generic flu-like symptoms. Testing on if the cause is parasitic, viral, or bacterial takes time and costs money while it's real fast and cheap to just skip right over to treatment. The patient is given an antibiotic, an antimalarial, and cough syrup. I
From Myanmar to the Philippines ... (Score:2)
Add in India, and you're maybe up to 20%. And around 50% of the population. (Where you draw the borders matters. Russia, west of the Urals? Iran? Iraq? Jordan? Israel?)
I mean, I know that most people are geographically illiterate outside their home countries, but you would hope for better after the Editor has gone through with the blue pencil. It's not as if it's difficult - the list of countries and their approximate areas (and populations) is not
not scorch (Score:2)
"Scorch" implies dry heat. The expected temps are not much different from what we experience here in calif central valley. But those places in Asia are super humid. That is the source of the problem. A better term would be "parboil."