Fast Facts on Climate Change
EXTREMELY hot days are the new normal thanks to climate change, said former US vice-president and climate change advocate Al Gore, Jr., before an audience of 700 from the Philippines and 80 other countries. Mr. Gore was in the country on March 14 to 16 for a climate mitigation program.
In a two-hour presentation, Mr. Gore, a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner, said 93% of the heat trapped by man-made pollution is absorbed by the oceans, which can cause huge and powerful typhoons like super-typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) that devastated the central Philippines in 2013.
Here are some climate change-related facts and figures from Mr. Gore’s presentation.
• February 2016 was the 372nd consecutive month with global temperatures above the 20th century average.
• Over 1,200 people died in Iran, Iraq and Pakistan’s heat wave last year. The heat index (a quantity expressing the discomfort felt as a result of the combined effects of the temperature and humidity of the air) in Bandar Mahshahr, Iran reached 74° Celsius on July 31 2015.
• The Philippines is the most vulnerable county when it comes to the effects of climate change, having experienced 328 weather-related major events from 1994 to 2013. It is followed by Bangladesh, Vietnam, Pakistan and Guatemala.
• From 2006 to 2010, drought turned 60% of Syria’s fertile land into desert and drove 1.5 million people into Syria’s already crowded cities.
• By 2050, the warmer waters in the southern Philippines could decrease the maximum fish catch potential by 50%.
• Enough solar energy reaches the Earth every hour to power the world’s energy needs for a full year.
“A will to act is in itself a renewable resource,” said Mr. Gore, who’s pushing for alternative and more environment-friendly energy resources like solar, wind and geothermal power. — NFP de Guzman
