Global Warming - A Weapon of Mass Destruction

Global warming a weapon of mass destruction, says British scientist
Mon Jul 28,11:57 AM ET



LONDON (AFP) - Human induced global climate change is a weapon of mass destruction at least as dangerous as nuclear, chemical or biological arms, a leading British climate scientist warned.

John Houghton, a former key member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said Monday that the impacts of global warming are such that "I have no hesitation in describing it as a weapon of mass destruction."

He said the United States, in an "epic" abandonment of leadership, was largely responsible for the threat.

"Like terrorism, this weapon knows no boundaries," Houghton said. "It can strike anywhere, in any form -- a heatwave in one place, a drought or a flood or a storm surge in another"

The US mainland was struck by 562 tornados in May, killing 41 people, he said, but the developing world was hit even harder.

For example, pre-monsoon temperatures this year in India reached a blistering 49C (120F), 5C (9F) above normal.

"Once this killer heatwave began to abate, 1,500 people lay dead -- half the number killed outright in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre," Houghton said.
He said British Prime Minister Tony Blair begun to face up to this, rhetorically at least, but "nowadays everyone knows that the US is the world's biggest polluter, and that with only one 20th of the world's population it produces a quarter of its greenhouse gas emissions."

"But the US government, in an abdication of leadership of epic proportions, is refusing to take the problem seriously -- and Britain, presumably because Blair wishes not to offend George Bush -- is beginning to fall behind too," Houghton said.

Apart from being co-chairman of the scientific assessment group of the climate change panel, Houghton is also the former chief executive of the British Meteorological Office.

UK troops reveal their new ordeal in 120F Iraq

Exclusive: MoD attacked as heat casualties fly home
IAN BRUCE, Defence Correspondent

BRITISH troops have been flown home from Iraq as casualties of the heat amid claims they are being forced to live in squalid conditions.There are 12,000 UK frontline peacekeeping troops in southern Iraq, and it is said their conditions have not improved markedly since hostilities ended three months ago.Personnel from units within 19 Brigade, which took over from the Desert Rats of the 1st UK Armoured Division in Basra last month, have contacted The Herald to complain about the lack of basic welfare for the soldiers patrolling the streets of Iraq's second city. Concerns include tents with no air-conditioning in 120F, having to drink "blood-temperature" bottled water because of a shortage of refrigerators, and fly-infested chemical toilets.

Hot, Sweltering Weather to Linger in South, East China

South and east China will continue to swelter in hot weather for the next two days with temperatures of 35 to 38 degrees centigrade, according to a source with the Central Meteorological Station on Sunday.

The region along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China's longest river, is likely to report average daily temperatures rising to 39 to 41 degrees, said Yang Keming, a senior engineer with the station.

The lower reaches of the Yangtze River and south China have reported high temperatures in the past two days.

Shanghai municipality in east China recorded a 60-year high of 39.6 degrees on Friday while most parts of east China's Zhejiang province reported that local temperatures hit 40 degrees.

Central China's Henan province recorded 38 degrees in the past two days, whereas and east China's Jiangxi and Fujian provinces also sweated through record high temperatures.

Yang attributed the continuing hot weather to the impact of subtropical high pressure.

The heat wave has resulted in severe drought in east China's Fujian, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces and central-south China's Hunan province.

Heat Wave, Drought Hit Europe's Economy

By ALEXANDRU ALEXE, Associated Press Writer

BUCHAREST, Romania - A heat wave and a drought are gouging a multibillion-dollar hole into Europe's economy, crippling shipping, shriveling crops and driving up the cost of electricity.

In Romania, dredgers dug into the Danube on Monday to deepen the river bed for hundreds of stalled barges, while in Croatia, five tons of dead fish polluted a lake.

Levels on the Danube were under two yards near Bazias in southwestern Romania, more than a yard below the minimum needed for barge traffic. At the southern port of Zimnicea, dredgers scooped up sludge from the river bed Monday, attempting to deepen navigation channels for the 251 ships waiting to move upstream to key markets in central and northern Europe.

Weeks of heat and dryness also choked other parts of the Balkans and the rest of Europe.



Heralding potential ecological disaster, Grigore Baboianu, the director of the Danube Delta Reservation, said 10 percent of the delta's unique wetlands, home to rare waterfowl and other animals, had dried up, while about 40 percent of the delta's water had evaporated.

Upstream on the Danube, ships traveling from Austria to Germany were not carrying full loads because of low water levels. Many goods normally moving on the Elbe between Hamburg and the Czech Republic were offloaded and put on trucks.

Hartmut Rhein, of Germany's Deutsche Binneschifffahrt AG, said the increased costs of using trucks or canals instead of normal river traffic will mean higher prices for heavy equipment, scrap metal, building materials and grain.

Although there were no shortages yet, some shipments are "just taking longer and getting more expensive," Rhein said.

The worst drought in years, brought on by a prolonged heat wave that has kept temperatures well above 86 degrees for weeks, agriculture ministers from the European Union were demanding compensation from EU headquarters for affected farmers.

Farm lobby groups in the European Union say the drought has cost more than $5.7 billion in losses. Hardest hit within the EU have been Italy, France, Germany, Portugal and Austria, where farmers' representatives warn of harvests up to 60 percent below normal yields for some crops.



After weeks of forest fires, dipping river levels and lack of rain, the drought made front-page news in parts of Europe.

"France is thirsty," read the lead story of Le Figaro newspaper Monday, as residents coped with limits on car washing, watering lawns and filling swimming pools.

Farmers in 55 of France's 96 departments were on alternate-day irrigation plans and were requested to regularly report the status of their water meters to local authorities, Le Figaro said. Violations carried fines of up to $1,720 for a first-time infraction.

Southern and eastern France have been hard hit by the drought, without significant rainfall in about two months. As river levels dip, several regions have banned fishing, including the central Loire and southern Hautes-Alpes departments until Sept. 21.

Forest fires fueled by the lack of rain and humidity have burned through 50,000 acres since the beginning of the month.

The Danube, which flows across 10 European countries, is also an essential source of electricity, supplying water to hydroelectric and nuclear power plants across the region. The volume of the Danube was at 3,066 cubic yards a second, the lowest in 160 years, according to Romanian shipping companies.

"A trip (to Western Europe) that normally took six days now takes three weeks, and we're loading only at half capacity," said Victor Crihana, director of Trans-Europa, an Austrian-Romanian shipping company.

Workers at Romania's only nuclear power plant at the southern port of Cernavoda were ready to shut down its reactor if water levels fell another 3.3 feet.

In Italy, where a heat wave and accompanying drought have lasted weeks, the national grid was overloaded by the use of air conditioners, causing summer blackouts for the first time in over 20 years. The Po River, which feeds many lesser rivers in northern Italy, was at near record low levels.

Rivers in the forest areas in northwestern Croatia were so low that some systems were pumping only mud instead of water and residents had to have bottled water delivered to their doorsteps.

Phoenix on track for hottest July on record

Anada Shorey
Associated Press
Jul. 25, 2003 01:00 PM


It's so hot windshields are shattering or falling out, dogs are burning their paws on the pavement, and candles are melting indoors.

People who live in the Valley of the Sun don't usually sweat the summer heat. But this July is off the charts.

With the average high for the first three weeks of the month at 110 degrees, Phoenix is on track to have the hottest July since the National Weather Service started keeping records in 1896. The average July high is 104.

"Being in this heat is like walking through the hot lamps they use to bake on a car's paint," said Roger Janusz, who was walking laps inside a mall instead of outdoors Thursday morning.

The low temperature on July 15 was 96 degrees, a record for the date. The high on July 16 was 117, making it the hottest day so far this year.

It's so hot that heat waves are creating turbulence for airplanes overhead, said Sky Harbor International Airport spokeswoman Deborah Ostreicher.

The searing pavement is burning the pads on dogs' feet and causing the animals to suffer heat stroke. Susan Prosse, hospital manager at University Animal Hospital, said when the pavement burns dogs' pads, they start dancing around. Some pet owners put booties on their dogs for their protection.

Floral designer Brenda Zamora said her bouquets are dying in the delivery trucks en route to their destinations. "This heat is not good for people, pets, flowers - anything," she said.

It is especially hard on the sick and elderly.

Dr. Donald Lauer of Phoenix has seen an increase in people with heat-related ailments this July. He said recently that when the air conditioning broke in an elderly woman's motor home, she suffered heat stroke, passed out and swerved off the road. She was not seriously hurt.

"Very few points of the human body are designed to function at 107 and 108," Lauer said.

Cars don't handle the heat well, either.

Terry Tapp, owner of an upholstery repair shop, said some windshields shatter when the heat causes them to expand. Others fall out when the glue holding them in place separates. The heat is also cracking and peeling dashboards.

"But the funniest thing you see with this heat is that you get the grumpiest people who come in that you have ever seen," Tapp said. "They have no tolerance for anything."

Leslie Wanek, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said the above-normal temperatures are due to a strong high-pressure system over the western United States, a late start to the usual summer rains and the heat-retaining effects of asphalt and concrete in this fast-growing metropolis of about 3 million.

Many people who are not boating or swimming are just staying indoors.

Josh Acton has no air conditioning, but he finally bought four fans after it got so hot in his house that candles melted.

About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before. Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their pink socks.

"It feels like you are in a furnace," said James Zanzo't, an inmate who has lived in the tents for 1 1/2 years. "It's inhumane."