2021-2022 Climate change retrospective
Summary of the past 2 years
Heatwaves
- May 2022 - current heat wave in India has already had a global impact, helping to send the price of wheat soaring to a record high last week after India banned exports of the crop, which has been badly damaged by the dry, hot conditions.
- July 17, 2022 - More than 1,000 deaths have been attributed to the nearly week-long heatwave in Portugal and Spain so far
- June / July 2021 - Record heatwave may have killed 500 people in western Canada
- June 2021 - During the deadly heat wave that blanketed Oregon and Washington in late June, about 600 more people died than would have been typical, a review of mortality data for the week of the crisis shows.
Blackouts
- Feb 2021 - 4 million customers lost heat after an arctic blast buckled the state's electric grid. (210 dead in Texas - link below under Extreme Cold Events)
- Summer 2021 - More than 400 blackouts (triggered in California) to reduce the risk of big wildfires. An estimated 460,000 homes and businesses have been affected
2022 - For the next five summers, extreme heat and other climate change impacts will threaten the reliability of California’s electrical grid, state officials said Friday. Available electricity supplies might not be able to keep up with demand if heat waves hit, droughts make hydro-power less available or wildfires reduce electricity transmission.
Extreme cold events
Droughts
- March 2022 - More than 93 percent of California is considered to be in severe or extreme drought. (The last CA drought lasted 4 years 2012-2016)
- June 2022 Spain and Portugal suffering driest climate for 1,200 years - 97% of the Portuguese territory is affected by “severe drought” conditions
- More drought effects listed under Famine
Widespread wildfires
- Spring 2022 - 12 unconstrained large fires have burned 322,309 acres in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas
- Spring 2022 - 37 active wildfires have burned over 22,000 acres in Florida
- July 2022 - Blazes in France, Greece, Portugal and Spain have destroyed thousands of hectares of land and forced thousands of residents and holidaymakers to flee.
- 2021 - Wildfires Broke Records around the World - Blazes from California to Siberia ( + Canada, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Albania, India, Pakistan) spewed more than 1.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide
Tornadoes
Dangerous flooding
- July 2021 - Death toll from China floods jumps to 302
- July 2021 - India floods claim 251 lives
- Summer 2021 - More than 200 dead in Germany
- Sept 2021 - Over 50 dead in Northeast after flooding as death toll continues to rise
- Feb 2022 - Over 200 dead in Brazil from flash floods and landslides
- March 2022 - Australia flood toll rises to 20 as thousands evacuate Sydney
- April 2022 - 435 killed after flooding washed away roads, destroyed homes in South Africa
- July 2022 - Northern Italy's worst drought in 70 years is expected to hit crop yields significantly, driving up prices by as much as 50%
Famines
- 2013 - Malnutrition identified as root cause of 3.1 million deaths among children
- 2021 - More than 41 million people worldwide are at risk of falling into famine or famine-like conditions (Central America, South America, Africa, Middle East)
- May 2022 - the number of severely food-insecure people has doubled in the past two years, from 135 million pre-pandemic to 276 million today. Now, more than half a million people are experiencing famine conditions, according to the U.N., an increase of more than 500% since 2016.
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