Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / World's oceans hit record-high July temperatures, EU's climate monitoring service says

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World's oceans hit record-high July temperatures, EU's climate monitoring service says · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Countries around the world are facing into another week of
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  Speaker 1: soaring temperatures, wildfires, and drought as a result of devastating
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  Speaker 1: heat waves driven by man made climate change. Western Europe
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  Speaker 1: has had its hottest June to July on record. The
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  Speaker 1: European Union's climate change monitoring program Copernicus also says that
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  Speaker 1: apart from the polar regions, record high temperatures have been
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  Speaker 1: recorded in the world's oceans in July. Here drought is
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  Speaker 1: due to be declared in more parts of England ahead
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  Speaker 1: of the fifth heat wave this year. Heat health alerts
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  Speaker 1: have been upgraded to amber for most of England, with
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  Speaker 1: temperatures expected to get to the mid thirties and across
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  Speaker 1: the Atlantic in Canada. A state of emergency is still
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  Speaker 1: in place in British Columbia because of wildfires, which have
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  Speaker 1: doubled in size since they first started at the weekend.
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  Speaker 1: On the other side of the world, winds, rain and
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  Speaker 1: flooding are causing havoc. Chinese authority have evacuated more than
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  Speaker 1: a million people from their homes in eastern China after
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  Speaker 1: Typhoon Dolphin made landfall. It's the strongest typhoon to hit
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  Speaker 1: China this year, with winds so strong they could flip
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  Speaker 1: this lorry on its side. Astonishing pictures there. Well, let's
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  Speaker 1: speak now to Samantha Burgess, Strategic lead for Climate at Copernicus,
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  Speaker 1: the European Union's climate change monitoring program Samantha, we appreciate
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  Speaker 1: you joining us on BBC News and really interesting to
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  Speaker 1: talk to you as you publish this latest data on
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  Speaker 1: the effect of the warming climate. Europe is heating up
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  Speaker 1: at around twice the global average. Why is that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, So Europe is warming up twice the
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  Speaker 2: global average rate for a number of reasons. One is
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  Speaker 2: that land areas are warming up faster than the orisan
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  Speaker 2: and Europe has you know, it's a very large continent.
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  Speaker 2: The second reason is the proximity to the Arctic, so
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  Speaker 2: the Arctic is warming up at three to four times
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  Speaker 2: the global average rate. The third reason is changing weather patterns,
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  Speaker 2: and the fourth reason is changing reflectivity, so as we
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  Speaker 2: have less snow and ice at the end of winter,
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  Speaker 2: and we have less sea ice not only in the
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  Speaker 2: Arctic regions but also in places like the Baltic Sea.
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  Speaker 2: We also have less low level clouds, so we're getting
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  Speaker 2: more of that sun's energy absorbing into the land into
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  Speaker 2: the ocean, which is warming up both of them more rapidly.
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  Speaker 1: And does that explain, Samantha, why we are seeing heat
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  Speaker 1: wave after heat wave in Europe this summer.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, that's right. So one of the consequences of Europe's
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  Speaker 2: warming is we are more likely to get the type
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  Speaker 2: of heat waves that we've seen this summer, so heat waves.
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  Speaker 2: The weather dynamics have changed, which means we're more likely
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  Speaker 2: to get heat waves. When we get those heat waves,
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  Speaker 2: they are hotter, they're lasting longer, and they're happening more frequently.
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  Speaker 1: Now, we mentioned as well that the world's oceans, apart
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  Speaker 1: from the polar regions, are really heating up to record
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  Speaker 1: levels as well. If you combine that with the heating
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  Speaker 1: land as well, what is the significance of that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so your report actually covered some of that. So
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  Speaker 2: with record high ocean temperatures, it means there's more energy
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  Speaker 2: available for storms. So the recent typhoon in China was
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  Speaker 2: probably made stronger due to climate change. It also exacerbates
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  Speaker 2: the heat waves, so we've seen this in June, July,
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  Speaker 2: and early August that because the ocean temperatures are so high,
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  Speaker 2: it means we don't get that relief at night, so
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  Speaker 2: we suffer what's known as tropical nights, which means that
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  Speaker 2: the temperature stays above twenty degrees and it's much harder
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  Speaker 2: to get to sleep as much harder cool down houses.
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  Speaker 3: Because those high temperatures at nighttime.
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  Speaker 1: So warming oceans reinforcing what's happening on land as well.
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  Speaker 1: And then if we look at the land, the heat
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  Speaker 1: and the drought over areas of land, do they reinforce
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  Speaker 1: each other as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, very much so. So because we've had this number
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  Speaker 2: of heat waves, record high temperatures, record low or absence
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  Speaker 2: of rainfall, that's really dried out the soils.
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  Speaker 3: It's dried out rivers.
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  Speaker 2: So we're seeing record low river levels across the major
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  Speaker 2: transport routes across Europe, like the Danube, the Sane and
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  Speaker 2: the Rhine. This has implications for energy security, so power plants,
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  Speaker 2: nuclear power plants have to switch off energy that's being
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  Speaker 2: transported through barges, and other goods being transported have had
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  Speaker 2: to stop because the river levels are too low for
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  Speaker 2: those heavy ships to pass through. And it also increases
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  Speaker 2: the WildFly risk as well. So with those very dry soils,
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  Speaker 2: it means the vegetation is drying out, which therefore increases
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  Speaker 2: the wildfire risk. So we have these hot, dry conditions
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  Speaker 2: and then a huge amount of available dry fuels. So
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  Speaker 2: it's this tinderbox scenario. If you get a spark, then
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  Speaker 2: that's what we saw in July, these record breaking wildfires
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  Speaker 2: in France and in Spain.
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  Speaker 1: Samantha, what would you say to the very many people
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  Speaker 1: who are incredibly worried about what they're seeing, what they're experiencing,
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  Speaker 1: and thinking, you know, what can we do about this?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Great question, And if you are concerned about this,
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  Speaker 2: the most important thing that you can do is talk
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  Speaker 2: about it.
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  Speaker 3: Vote.
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  Speaker 2: So if you've got a local election coming up, make
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  Speaker 2: sure you're voting for someone who believes the same.
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  Speaker 3: Priority issues that you do.
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  Speaker 2: And encourage your local authorities to have heat health action
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  Speaker 2: plans to make sure that your neighbors and your vulnerable
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  Speaker 2: parts of your community are really have a plan in
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  Speaker 2: place to protect them from the heat that we will
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  Speaker 2: see to come not only later this summer, but in
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  Speaker 2: the summers to come, likely to be even.
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  Speaker 3: More intense than this one in a warming world.
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  Speaker 1: Okay. Samantha Burger, Strategical lead for Climate with coponicus. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you very much for your time today.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Now a very different type of weather, but as we mentioned,
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  Speaker 1: and still linked to man made climate change, A typhoon
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  Speaker 1: in eastern China has brought torrential rain and flooding to
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  Speaker 1: the eastern part of the country. Our China correspondent Stephen
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  Speaker 1: McDonnell has the latest.
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  Speaker 4: Chinese scientists have for years been warning of the increasingly
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  Speaker 4: destructive capability of these typhoons, and so have an abundance
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  Speaker 4: of caution. Officials here have moved huge numbers of people,
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  Speaker 4: to say, for rare is in the southern city of
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  Speaker 4: Wunzhou alone, many hundreds of people were taken to emergency shelters.
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  Speaker 4: But you know it's right across the southeast of China
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  Speaker 4: and hitting all different, all manner sections of the economy.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, workers off oil rigs brought back to the
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  Speaker 4: Chinese mainland, ships ordered back to port, smaller vessels, many
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  Speaker 4: hundreds of them in Shanghai placed inside shelters. One thousand
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  Speaker 4: and five hundred flights canceled. And then you also have
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  Speaker 4: the potential of a further disastrous consequences with engineers checking
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  Speaker 4: dams and making sure that they're sound Now, the reason
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  Speaker 4: for this is that the last typhoon to hit here
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  Speaker 4: resulted in serious flooding. Those floodwaters at times breached dams
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  Speaker 4: to deadly effect, killing people downstream as a result. And
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  Speaker 4: so you have people out CHECKI building sites, as I say,
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  Speaker 4: dams and other structures, making sure that there can't be
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  Speaker 4: other secondary disasters as a result of this typhoon.