Commentary: Rising temperatures, fires and floods highlight importance of understanding weather extremes
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Commentary: Rising temperatures, fires and floods highlight importance of understanding conditions extremes
The day-to-day impact of climate change on our lives are felt through extreme or abnormal weather events, says Adam Switzer from the Asian Schoolhouse of the Environment at NTU.
Dry weather condition has turned grass dark-brown by a road in Singapore. (Photo: Chew Hui Min)
22 Feb 2022 06:01AM (Updated: 04 May 2022 12:47PM)
SINGAPORE: The year 2022 concluded a decade of consistently ascension global temperatures, rapidly retreating water ice sheets, and record sea levels – all driven by greenhouse gases produced for the most part by human activities.
Boilerplate temperatures for the terminal v years were the highest on record for most of the planet. Land-based global temperature from January to October 2019 was approximately 1.i degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial menstruum, according to the World Meteorological Office.
In Singapore, 2022 was our joint hottest year on record, on par with 2022 temperatures.
The isle country is heating upwardly at about 0.25 degrees Celsius per decade – twice as fast as the residue of the world, according to the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS).
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Worse, our planet'southward oceans, which deed equally a buffer by absorbing heat and carbon dioxide, continue to heat up far more than speedily than previously thought. Recent research has estimated the oceans are heating up 40 per cent faster on average than estimated v years ago.
At our coast, the rate of sea level rise continues to accelerate primarily due to the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, driven by rising greenhouse gas concentrations. Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the temper hit a record 411.85 parts per million (ppm) in December 2019.
Carbon dioxide we emit into the atmosphere stays there for centuries, and carbon dioxide taken into the body of water stays for even longer, thus locking united states into farther climate change and global warming.
HOTTER DAYS
Our planet continues to rut upwardly on boilerplate. Singapore's hottest day in 2022 was April 17, with 36.4 degrees C measured in Paya Lebar, according to the MSS.
Our hottest days are likely to get even hotter. Hotter days are not only unpleasant for humans and many animals, but they will probable place greater strain on human health and our health system in Singapore. An increase in the number of days over 36 degrees will place tremendous stress on our vulnerable elderly and those that work outdoors.
Singapore and much of Southeast Asia already feel relatively hot temperatures and loftier humidity year-circular. High humidity means perspiration doesn't evaporate as quickly placing stress on your body as information technology is harder to stay absurd.
If the temperature continues to rise and humidity remains loftier so there will likely exist an increase in the number of people who experience heat exhaustion and estrus stroke.
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This problem is not unique to Singapore. Many other regions beyond Asia are likely to feel the pressures of extreme heat and its effects on ageing populations and the economically disadvantaged.
Aberrant Conditions EVENTS
While the average climate change indicators continue rising, the solar day-to-24-hour interval affect of climate change on our lives are felt through extreme or "abnormal" weather events.
I of the chief impact of climate change is erratic rainfall patterns. Such variability in rainfall threatens agriculture and crop yields, which combined with population increase, pose considerable food security challenges to vulnerable countries in the region.
In mid-2019, Thailand saw a meaning drop in rice production as reservoirs dried upwards. Australia, a net exporter of wheat, faced the unique case of needing to seek imports to supply its domestic demand.
Other events in 2022 also demonstrated the importance of understanding extreme events such equally floods and droughts, as much of Asia received abnormally high or low rainfall.
In India, the onset and withdrawal of the Indian Monsoon was delayed, causing a dry spell and water stress in June.
The dry out spell was followed by extreme rainfall that generated a series of floods in belatedly July and early on August 2019. The floods killed at to the lowest degree 200 people and displaced more than a million.
People were going from having no water in a drought to too much water in floods in the infinite of a few weeks.
Exceptionally dry out conditions prevailed in Asia Pacific over 2019, especially Indonesia and the Mekong basin in the 2d half, which led to the most significant burn season since 2015, with haze spreading beyond the region, including Singapore.
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Drought weather condition in Australia also highlighted this peril to the globe. Much of inland eastern Commonwealth of australia had been experiencing drought through 2022 and 2018, and in 2019, the drought expanded and intensified.
Australia just experienced its worst fire flavor in recent memory, merely equally some fires ended, the rains came. Much of burn down-ravaged eastern Commonwealth of australia is at present experiencing dramatic alluvion events.
At that place should be no doubt the Australian fires are linked to climate change. A warmer, dryer atmosphere coupled with prolonged drought were a ending waiting to happen.
The Australian regime was warned repeatedly and accurately. The Garnaut Climatic change Review of 2008 said projections of fire weather "suggest that fire seasons will start before, end slightly later, and by and large be more intense", farther stating that "this upshot increases over time, but should be directly observable past 2020."
Other climate extremes that made the news several times in 2022 were tropical cyclones or typhoons, with Typhoon Hagibis barely missing Tokyo in Oct, but nonetheless causing severe flooding and meaning economic losses.
Toward year-terminate, the people of the key Philippines experienced even so some other dissentious typhoon, equally Typhoon Phanfone battered the Philippines on Christmas 24-hour interval, bringing a moisture, miserable and terrifying holiday to millions.
With continued warming of our oceans, the hereafter of cyclones and storms remains a topic of considerable debate. Here also, there is much more to do to answer questions about the future of cyclones in our region.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF CLIMATE Enquiry
Climate researchers are ever examining the likelihood of changes in how often farthermost atmospheric condition and climate events volition occur and whether or not they will become larger and more damaging.
Unfortunately, our understanding of the dynamic processes in the torrid zone remains rather poor. Nosotros accept very little data on the comparative frequency and intensity of by events.
However, the extreme climate events of 2022 accept generated a groundswell of activity calling for a new wave of climate bear upon inquiry. In July 2019, for example, Malaysia's Ministry building of Water, Land and Natural Resources deputed a national audit on the water industry in anticipation of the longer droughts expected due to climate change.
Such inquiry would inform and facilitate efforts by industries and governments to amend the fashion they interpret and manage risks around farthermost climate events.
What we do know is that extreme events are commonly the consequence of a combination of driving factors. Multiple hazardous events pour when they act every bit a series.
For case, droughts can pb to increased chance of wildfires, which and so heighten the risk of landslides. This rising take chances posed by extreme events is very existent in the torrid zone and Asia's emerging cities.
Nosotros urgently need to dig deeper for detailed investigations of likely changes in storm systems, dry out periods, extreme rainfall or heat in the context of a rapidly changing climate.
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CORE ISSUES FOR SINGAPORE'S FUTURE
Climate change and climatic extremes are a core issue for Singapore's future. Not simply do hotter days strain public health, but prolonged droughts or dry spells volition well-nigh certainly stress our h2o supply.
This will force Singapore to consider further investment in relatively expensive h2o recycling and desalinisation technology.
Moreover, flooding events are all likely to bear upon the everyday lives of many Singaporeans by disrupting transport and business organization.
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Confronting the backdrop of rising ocean levels, Singapore faces an increased risk of compound flooding equally inundation waters reach our coast.
In his Budget 2022 oral communication, Finance Government minister Heng Swee Keat announced a new Littoral and Flood Protection fund with an initial injection of S$v billion. Being that climate modify accommodation might cost S$100 billion or more over 100 years, Singapore is first to set aside resources for it.
As we go along an heart on climate change, information technology's crucial that nosotros understand how it can manifest equally extreme weather, with adverse bear upon on Singapore and the region.
Adam Switzer is the Acquaintance Chair (Bookish) of the Asian School of the Surroundings and a Principal Investigator in the Earth Observatory of Singapore at Nanyang Technological Academy (NTU).
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