Extreme temperatures, heat stress and forced migration
Ignoring the signs of climate change will lead to unprecedented, societally disruptive heat extremes in the Middle East and North Africa
2021-03-24
(Press-News.org) The study, building on cooperation between climate scientists from the MENA region, aimed at assessing emerging heatwave characteristics. The research team used a first-of-its-kind multi-model ensemble of climate projections designed exclusively for the geographic area. Such detailed downscaling studies had been lacking for this region. The researchers then projected future hot spells and characterised them with the Heat Wave Magnitude Index. The good match among the model results and with observations indicates a high level of confidence in the heat wave projections.
"Our results for a business-as-usual pathway indicate that especially in the second half of this century unprecedented super- and ultra-extreme heatwaves will emerge", explains George Zittis of The Cyprus Institute, first author of the study. These events will involve excessively high temperatures of up to 56 degrees Celsius and higher in urban settings and could last for multiple weeks, being potentially life-threatening for humans and animals. In the second half of the century, about half of the MENA population or approximately 600 million people could be exposed to such annually recurring extreme weather conditions.
"Vulnerable citizens may not have the means to adapt to such harsh environmental conditions", adds Jos Lelieveld, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and leading the research team. "These heat waves combined with regional economic, political, social and demographic drivers have a high potential to cause massive, forced migration to cooler regions in the north."
To avoid such extreme heat events in the region, the scientists recommend immediate and effective climate change mitigation measures. "Such measures include drastic decreases of the emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, but also adaptation solutions for the cities in the area", says Lelieveld. It is expected that in the next 50 years, almost 90 percent of the exposed population in the MENA will live in urban centers, which will need to cope with these societally disruptive weather conditions. "There is an urgent need to make the cities more resilient to climate change", emphasizes Zittis.
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-03-24
March 24, 2021 -- Perhaps the most frustrating limitation of owning an all-electric car is how long it takes to fully charge the battery. For a Tesla, for example, it takes about 40 minutes to charge it to 80% capacity using the most powerful charging station.
Scientists have long thought the laws of physics limited how fast you could safely recharge a battery, but new research by University of Utah chemical engineering assistant professor Tao Gao has opened the door to creating a battery that can be recharged in just a fraction of the time.
Gao's research was detailed in a new paper published in the scientific journal Joule. The study was conducted while Gao was a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under ...
2021-03-24
VANCOUVER, Wash. - Most people rely on family members to help them learn how to open a bank account, find a job or create a budget, but that's often not an option for youth in foster care, according to a recent study in Child & Family Social Work.
"Foster kids have distinctive challenges," said Amy Salazar, lead author on the study and an assistant professor at Washington State University Vancouver. "They need more support in several areas, and financial capability is one of them, especially when they're transitioning out of the foster care system and into adulthood."
For the study, Salazar and her co-authors surveyed 97 foster care youths aged 14 to 20. They found that those who were age 18 and over had more ...
2021-03-24
Florida has experienced a relatively mild winter, which typically translates to more mosquitoes in the summer and more birds on which they can feast. If history repeats itself, it's likely there will be an uptick in West Nile virus cases this year, especially in the outer fringes of the suburbs where much of the nighttime illumination emanates from the skyglow of nearby cities.
A new study from the University of South Florida (USF) is the first to provide direct evidence that light pollution is driving infectious disease patterns in nature. The research team previously determined mosquitoes and birds are attracted to light, greatly enhancing the likelihood ...
2021-03-24
The first personalised advice on the most effective exercise to lower blood pressure is published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 The ESC consensus document recommends specific activities according to an individual's current blood pressure level.
One in four heart attacks are caused by high blood pressure. It is estimated that by 2025, around 60% of the world's population will have hypertension. While it is widely accepted that exercise lowers blood pressure, until now recommendations have focused on the amount of exercise per week, without considering an individual's starting blood ...
2021-03-24
New research led by the University of Bristol has revealed that crocodiles once flourished on land and in the oceans as a result of fast evolution.
Modern crocodiles are predators living in rivers, lakes and wetlands, grabbing fish, reptiles, birds and mammals with their conspicuous snouts and powerful jaws.
However, new research published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows that ancient crocodiles were once much more varied because of rapid evolution.
In the time of the dinosaurs, some crocodiles experimented with dolphin-like adaptations to living in the oceans, and others lived on land as fast-moving plant-eaters.
The researchers studied over 200 skulls and jaws, including ...
2021-03-24
SINGAPORE, 23 March 2021 - Scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School, the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Infectious Diseases Labs found that antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 wane at different rates, lasting for mere days in some individuals, while remaining present in others for decades. The study, published in The Lancet Microbe, shows that the severity of the infection could be a deciding factor in having longer-lasting antibodies. Individuals with low levels of neutralising ...
2021-03-24
A University of Birmingham-led study of top-flight UK rugby players - carried out in collaboration with the Rugby Football Union (RFU), Premiership Rugby, and Marker Diagnostics - has identified a method of accurately diagnosing concussion using saliva, paving the way for the first non-invasive clinical test for concussion for use in sport and other settings.
Following the team's previous research, which identified that the concentration of specific molecules in saliva changes rapidly after a traumatic brain injury, the researchers embarked on a three-year study in elite rugby to establish if these 'biomarkers' could be used as a diagnostic test ...
2021-03-24
Potentially paves way for non-invasive diagnostic test at all levels of participation
On a par with the assessment currently provided in professional sports
Could work alongside 'gold standard' head injury protocol used in elite sports
Distinct chemical 'signatures' for concussion have been identified in the spit of elite male rugby players, reveals research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
This potentially paves the way for a non-invasive and rapid diagnostic test for the condition that could be used pitch side and after the game at all levels of participation, suggest the researchers.
This is especially important because ...
2021-03-23
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have observed novel helical magnetic ordering in the topological compound EuIn2As2 which supports exotic electrical conduction tunable by a magnetic field. The discovery has significant implications for basic research into functional topological properties and may one day find use in a number of advanced technology applications.
Topological materials burst onto the scene in the physical sciences about fifteen years ago, decades after their existence had been theorized. Called 'topological' because their bulk electronic bands are "knotted" together, the surfaces of topological insulators "untie the knot" and become metallic. Researchers ...
2021-03-23
People who received a flu shot last flu season were significantly less likely to test positive for a COVID-19 infection when the pandemic hit, according to a new study. And those who did test positive for COVID-19 had fewer complications if they received their flu shot.
These new findings mean senior author Marion Hofmann Bowman, M.D., is continuing to recommend the flu shot to her patients even as the flu season may be winding down.
"It's particularly relevant for vaccine hesitance, and maybe taking the flu shot this year can ease some angst about the new COVID-19 vaccine," says Hofmann, an associate professor of internal medicine and a cardiologist at the Michigan ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Extreme temperatures, heat stress and forced migration
Ignoring the signs of climate change will lead to unprecedented, societally disruptive heat extremes in the Middle East and North Africa
