Environment & Energy
Related: About this forum'The Sea Will Get as Hot as a Jacuzzi': What Life in Israel Will Be Like in 2100
Winter will get much shorter and even nighttime won't offer respite from the heat. Israel is warming up, and by the end of the century we simply wont be able to exist without air conditioning
Haaretz
By Oded Carmeli Aug 15, 2019
Im happy I wont be alive, says Baruch Rinkevich of Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, who is currently helping to prepare the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes next report on the oceans and the cryosphere.
After us, the deluge, as the saying goes. People dont fully understand what were talking about here, explains Prof. Rinkevich, a marine biologist. They think about melting icebergs and polar bears who wont have a home. They dont understand that everything is expected to change: the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the landscapes we see, the oceans, the seasons, the daily routine, the quality of life. Our children will have to adapt or become extinct...
To prepare this report, Haaretz spoke to a number of Israeli scientists from a range of disciplines. All the interviewees were asked to address the anticipated implications of a moderate rise of only 2 to 3 degrees Celsius, the midrange of the IPCC forecast. The picture that emerges, however threatening, is the most realistic one for the near future. And even it might be overly optimistic.
The combination of these two parameters, heat and humidity, is called the Heat Stress Index. Brief exposure to conditions of a high HSI can raise the body temperature to between 38 and 40 degrees Celsius (normal is 37 degrees, or 98.6 F), resulting in headaches, vomiting and shallow breathing. When body heat reaches 41 degrees or more, multi-systemic damage occurs, affecting the brain, the heart, the liver and the kidneys, which can lead to loss of consciousness, spasms, even death. Elderly and infirm people, as well as infants and children, are the first to suffer and die in such a situation, because the heat-regulation mechanisms in their bodies are less efficient.
In July 2015, residents of the Iranian city of Bandar Mahshahr awoke to a temperature of 46 degrees Celsius (115 F), accompanied by high humidity from the Persian Gulf. The result was an unimaginable HSI of 74 degrees the second-highest ever recorded (the highest on record is 81 degrees, in 2003, in the Saudi Arabian city of Dhahran). At that level of heat overload, even someone at full repose in the shade is incapable of cooling his or her body down by means of perspiration and is in genuine mortal danger, like someone trapped in a locked car in the summer.
By 2100, Israelis, too, could wake up to days like that.
A stunning article filled with quotes from thoughtful and brilliant scientists.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-the-sea-will-get-as-hot-as-a-jacuzzi-what-life-in-israel-will-look-like-in-2100-1.7688062
Duppers
(28,094 posts)It will be. Even many DUers don't want to hear or believe this. It's very difficult to accept and once accepted, most difficult to deal with until one come to a certain place.
I cried for weeks when coming to terms with the knowledge that my son will be unable to experience a full lifespan. Our own mortality is most difficult to face (hence religion) but knowledge of what we've done to our children is devastating. My son's a brilliant person, knows what's coming, and is living life to its fullest now. I've profusely apologize to him.
bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)Our poor monkey brains seem unable to care about a world only a decade or two out in the future. You are so correct- our own mortality ,as unpleasant sounding as it is, is nothing compared to letting our future families inherit a wasteland we helped create.
Duppers
(28,094 posts)As a line in "As Good as It Gets" goes - "it's the brave thing to do."
Then take cover. ....
Seedersandleechers
(3,044 posts)will the earth begin to heal.
The_jackalope
(1,660 posts)But She has locked us in a hot car, and is down on her hands and knees on the sidewalk throwing up blood.