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In Indiea, more heat could equal more death

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In Indiea, more heat could equal more death

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With the problem expected to worsen, he added, the challenge is "finding a comprehensive solution rather than a temporary fix that benefits some at the expense of the majority."

Parts of Asia have experienced record-breaking heat waves in recent years, with temperatures well above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius). In 2015, more than 2,400 people, mostly laborers and farmhands, died from heat-related illness in India, according to the country's National Disaster Management Authority.

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported in January that the earth's average surface temperature has risen by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 Celsius) since the late 19th century, largely because of human-caused atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide.

Climate scientists predict that, without preventive action to curb emissions, global mean temperatures could rise by several degrees Celsius by the end of this century and warn that a rise of more than 2 degrees could tip the earth into a future of irreversible rising seas and melting ice sheets.

The goal of the 2015 Paris climate accord was to prevent the worst effects of climate change by limiting the global temperature increase to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 Celsius). Nearly every country pledged to reduce their emissions. But President Trump announced last week that the United States would withdraw from the accord, saying that it imposed unfair environmental standards on American businesses and workers. (Environmental groups disputed the economic study that he had cited to prove his point.)

The new India study was based on data from the India Meteorological Department showing that in the 50 years up to 2009, the country's mean summer temperature rose by more than 0.9 degree Fahrenheit (0.5 Celsius). The study also looked at statistics that the department had compiled from newspaper reports and other sources about deaths during heat waves.

The study's authors used scientific modeling to show that with a 0.9 degree Fahrenheit (0.5 Celsius) rise in temperature, the probability of a heat wave with more than 100 deaths in India increased to 32 percent from 13 percent.

The researchers found that, compared with the period from 1960 to 1984, Southern and Western India experienced 50 percent more heat waves from 1985 to 2009.

They wrote that even "moderate and practically unavoidable increases in mean temperatures" - like the ones they analyzed - "may lead to large increases in heat-related mortality, unless measures are taken to substantially improve the resilience of vulnerable populations."

Some experts expect India's temperature to rise by 4 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 to 5.5 Celsius) by the end of this century, the study said.

The study is not the first effort to link climate change to heat-related deaths among vulnerable populations, and the phenomenon is not limited to developing countries.

A 2010 study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, for example, said that the mortality rate in Hong Kong rose 1.8 percent for every one-degree-Celsius rise above 28.2 Celsius (82.8 Fahrenheit). It said that people living in poorer neighborhoods were among the most vulnerable.

Emily Y.Y. Chan, the lead author of the 2010 study, and a professor of public health at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that there was an urgent need for more research that would allow governments to help specific groups, such as the aged, the disabled or the chronically ill.

But Professor Taylor said that individual responses to heat waves tended to illustrate a problem of environmental justice.

Richer populations in Asia can afford to invest in air conditioning and other mitigating measures, he said, "but using air conditioning adds to warming, making it worse for those who cannot afford such luxuries."

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united nations framework convention on climate change

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In India, Slight Rise in Temperatures Is Tied to Heat Wave Deaths

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With the problem expected to worsen, he added, the challenge is "finding a comprehensive solution rather than a temporary fix that benefits some at the expense of the majority." Parts of Asia have experienced record-breaking heat waves in recent years, with temperatures well above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius).

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Climate Change Could Equal More Violence

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What If All The Ice Melted On Earth? ft. Bill Nye

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What If All The Ice Melted On Earth? ft. Bill Nye

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What If All The Ice Melted On Earth? ft. Bill Nye

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What Happens If The World Warms Up By 2°C?

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What Happens If The World Warms Up By 2°C?

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Climate Change: What Happens If The World Warms Up By 2°C?

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Australian Cities Could Be Underwater in decades

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Australian Cities Could Be Underwater in decades

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Some of Australia's most densely populated suburbs, major cities and crucial pieces of infrastructure, such as Sydney airport, could be underwater in just decades, according to an alarming new prediction.

A newly developed map of Australia, based on data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) in the US, shows places like Port Melbourne, Sydney's Double Bay, the Gold Coast, Cairns and Byron Bay, are at risk of becoming uninhabitable in a matter of decades.

Sydney, Brisbane and Hobart airports are also in danger of being swamped, according to the predictions.

In a new report, NOAA projected the global sea level to rise a maximum of two metres by the year 2100, if greenhouse gas emissions continue at "business as usual" levels.

Map creator Nathan Eaton said the fresh information revealed that the estimated worst case scenario, predicted in a 2013 report, is now the most likely outcome.

In that report, the maximum rise was predicted at 74 centimetres.

"We want to give people a chance to prepare and having this information available is the first step to becoming aware of what challenges their community might have to face," Mr Eaton said.

The map, made available on the website Coastal Risk Australia, shows the estimates from 2013 layered against the new information at a high tide scenario.

The year 2100 might seem too distant to worry about; but Mr Eaton said he wanted to showcase a year that would see a heavy blow.

"The current generation that's being born will have to deal with this, so it's actually not that far away if you think about it," he said.

Action is already being taken.

The Gold Coast, for instance, has already begun building a seawall to strengthen the city's defences against erosive wave action and wild weather.

Australian Coastal Councils Association executive director Alan Stokes said the map reinforced that all levels of government needed to start taking sea level risks seriously.

"Anybody in their right mind would have to be worried about what impact that sort of inundation is likely to have," Mr Stokes said, adding that he is frustrated that the Federal government neglected to address emissions levels in the latest budget.

Around 85 per cent of Australia's population live near the coast.

Mr Stokes said those looking to buy in these areas, should proceed with "open eyes" and to take all factors into account.

"It'd be difficult to ignore the potential risk for people buying into these coastal suburbs. You really need to do your research, have a look at the maps and know what the risk is," he said.

If unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions continue, a two-metre rise in sea levels is not a matter of if, but when, according to University of New South Wales Climate Change Research Centre's Professor, John Church.

A major reduction in the world's carbon emissions would "substantially reduce what level we're likely to get to", he said.

'Map doesn't go far enough'

The map, however, does not take into account local conditions.

Australian National University ocean and climate change expert, Professor Eelco Rohling, said while the map was a useful tool to communicate the threat of climate change, it is too simplified to be used effectively by city planners.

"The general public wants to be shown, but not told, the details," Professor Rohling said.

"The danger is that you're under-informing people. I find that a bit of a shame."

He adds that two main factors influencing the rate of sea level rise should have been taken into account when putting the map together: glacial isostatic adjustment (when the Earth's crust bounces back from the weight of a glacier after it has melted) and the different scenarios of melting in Greenland and Antarctica.

Professor Rohling said these two factors could change the local sea level rise by tens of centimetres.
Anthea Batsakis is a freelance writer

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These Aussie suburbs could be underwater in just decades

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Some of Australia's most densely populated suburbs, major cities and crucial pieces of infrastructure, such as Sydney airport, could be underwater in just decades, according to an alarming new prediction.

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Why humans don't understand climate change.

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Why humans don't understand climate change.

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When Per Espen Stoknes looked at polls going back to 1989 assessing the level of public concern about climate change in 39 different countries, he found a surprising pattern in the data.

"Incredibly enough, it shows that the more certain the science becomes, the less concern we find in richer Western democracies," he said. "How can it be that with increasing level of urgency and certainty in the science, people get less concerned?"

After further research, Stoknes, the author of What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warming, found some answers. He examined several hundred peer-reviewed social science studies and was able to isolate five main barriers that keep climate messages from engaging people, what he calls "the Five Ds": Distance, Doom, Dissonance, Denial, and iDentity.

"I had to cheat a little bit with the last D - I lost one there - but it was the closest I could get," he admitted.

Distance deals with the fact that climate change is presented as far away, in both time and space. When climate models talk of 2050 or 2100, it seems like eons from now. We may feel for polar bears on melting ice floes, but they have little bearing on our day-to-day lives.

To Stoknes, the dissonance problem might be an even bigger deal: What we actually do every day conflicts with what we know we should do.

"It makes us feel a little bit like hypocrites because I know it's important, I shouldn't do this, but yet we do it and we do it all the time, every day: eat meat, drive a car, go by plane," he said.

For some, the uncomfortable feeling of dissonance makes them turn to denial, while others avoid the issue or feel powerless to make a difference.

While Stoknes concedes that individual actions alone can't solve the climate problem, he doesn't buy into the idea that we're powerless.

"Individual actions, through their social ripple effects in the norms and values of people, will build the bottom-up support needed for the structural solutions. That is why individual action is important, not because I saved 11 kilograms of CO2 yesterday," he said.

Change behaviors, change attitudes - but how do you get people to adopt new behaviors to begin with?

"In terms of behavioral change, we need two things," said Magali Delmas, a professor at the Institute of Environment and Sustainability at UCLA and the Anderson School of Management. "We need first to increase awareness, and then second, we need to find the right motivations for people to change their behavior."

She's on the hunt for these motivations, looking for simple ways to make climate change personal.

In a recent study, Delmas and colleagues tested different messaging approaches with consumers to see what could cause them to lower their electricity usage. Some households were sent personalized emails with their monthly power bill telling them how they could save money, while others were told how their energy usage impacted the environment and children's health.

Money proved to be a poor motivator: It had no effect. But linking pollution to rates of childhood asthma and cancer produced an 8 percent drop in energy use, and more than double that in households with kids.

Watch the video above with Delmas, Stoknes, and others who are finding practical ways to give us the collective kick in the pants we need to take action on climate change.
Find out more about how understanding human psychology can lead to climate change solutions at climate.universityofcalifornia.edu.

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Why humans are so bad at thinking about climate change

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How psychology can trick us into keeping Earth habitable.

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Infographic - Climate Change in Singapore

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Melting Ice Brings Cruises and Threat of Accidents

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Infographic-How Does Climate Change Impact Health?

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Climate change: Earth's giant game of Tetris - Joss Fong

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Ocean Acidification Kills Oysters by the Billions

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Infographic - Who's at risk with climate change? 