Earth’s 120,000-Year Heat Record Shattered, Finds Study

AFRICA  Temperature increase is accelerating......Extreme weather worsens food insecurity, displacement and conflict.....Agricultural productivity is falling.....Adaptation financing is insufficient........Losses and damages are rising.......Early warnings must reach everyone. Nairobi 4 September 2023 (WMO) – Africa is responsible for only a fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions but is suffering disproportionately from climate change. This is harming food security, ecosystems and economies, fueling displacement and migration and worsening the threat of conflict over dwindling resources, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The State of the Climate in Africa 2022 report shows that the rate of temperature increase in Africa has accelerated in recent decades, with weather- and climate-related hazards becoming more severe. And yet financing for climate adaptation is only a drop in the ocean of what is needed. More than 110 million people on the continent were directly affected by weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2022, causing more than US$ 8.5 billion in economic damages. There were a reported 5 000 fatalities, of which 48% were associated with drought and 43% were associated with flooding, according to the Emergency Event Database. But the true toll is likely to be much higher because of under-reporting. “Africa is responsible for less than 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But it is the continent which is the least able to cope with the negative impacts of climate change. Heatwaves, heavy rains, floods, tropical cyclones, and prolonged droughts are having devastating impacts on communities and economies, with increasing numbers of people at  risk,” said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas. “There are big gaps in weather observations in Africa and early warning services are woefully adequate. We are determined to close those gaps and ensure that life-saving early warnings reach everyone,” he said. The report, produced jointly with the African Union Commission and Africa Climate Policy Centre of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), was released during the Africa Climate Summit, which also saw the launch of the Early Warnings For All in Africa Action Plan. Kenya, which is hosting the summit, also released its State of the Climate in Kenya in 2022 report. “Africa, like other regions, has come to terms with the reality that climate change is already happening. Left untamed, the coming decades and years would easily be characterized by severe climate-induced pressure on the continent’s economies, livelihoods and nature,” says H.E. Ambassador Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment at the African Union Commission. “Given Africa’s high exposure, fragility and low adaptive capacity, the effects of climate change are expected to be felt more severely. People’s health, peace, prosperity, infrastructure, and other economic activities across many sectors in Africa are exposed to significant risks associated with climate change,” she writes in the report. Agriculture is the mainstay of Africa’s livelihoods and national economies – supporting more than 55% of the labor force. But its agricultural productivity growth has declined by 34% since 1961 due to climate change. This decline is the highest compared to what other regions of the world have experienced. Projected annual food imports by African countries are expected to increase by about a factor of three, from US$ 35 billion to US$ 110 billion by 2025. The level of loss and damage, and therefore the costs incurred, will depend on many factors, including the level of ambition of global mitigation actions and the level of investment in adaptation at the local level. In a 4 °C warming world, with strong regional adaptation, “residual damages” costs equivalent to 3% of Africa’s projected gross domestic product could be incurred annually by 2080........and there's much, much more- Key Impacts.....  https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/africa-suffers-disproportionately-from-climate-change?utm_source=cbnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2023-10-21&utm_campaign=DeBriefed+Earth+s+hottest+year+for+millennia+Countries+set+out+stall+on+fossil+fuels+Saving+shrinking+Lake+Chad#:~:text=But%20it%20is%20the%20continent,said%20WMO%20Secretary%2DGeneral%20Prof.            

 “The number of diseases — and the extent of the infections — is going up. So, under hotter or warmer conditions, and in some areas, more humid or even more arid conditions, those infections become more prevalent and more extensive,” said Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia and the author of Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest. Ramsfield said human movement is also fuelling the spread of tree pathogens between continents, whether that’s through global trade or tourism. And while insect-based threats like mountain pine beetles tend to make the most headlines for rapidly decimating tree populations, diseases tend to work more slowly.  “You don’t see them,” Ramsfield said, “until the disease pops up and the pathogen becomes established.” The biggest concern for Gougherty when it comes to global tree health? The diseases we don’t even know about yet.
 “In an ideal world, we’d be able to identify pathogens quickly and implement effective management strategies soon after any symptoms are observed. But it can sometimes take years to determine the cause of new pest outbreaks — whether they be caused by insects, pathogens or some environmental factor,” Gougherty warned. “Not knowing how pests spread and are transmitted or other basic biology from the onset means we’re often playing catch-up.”   READ THE REPORT  Emerging infectious diseases threaten natural and managed trees worldwide – causing reduced vigour, increased mortality and, occasionally, extirpation – yet we have little understanding of how emerging diseases have accumulated over time and how accumulation has varied by host species, host nativity and in different global regions.  I show disease accumulation is increasing rapidly globally, with numerous recent years having nearly twice the number of new records as the twenty-year average and the number of new reports doubling every ~ 11 years. Of the tree genera assessed, Pinus had by far the most new diseases reported over the last several decades, likely reflecting both its large native range in the Northern Hemisphere and its wide use in forestry globally. Most hosts tend to accumulate more diseases in their native ranges than their non-native ranges, consistent with pathogen introductions causing most new diseases. Europe and Central Asia had the most accumulated emerging diseases, but accumulation is also increasing rapidly in East Asia. This work suggests that the impacts of emergent tree diseases are likely to continue to compound in the future and threaten native and planted forests worldwide.   https://neobiota.pensoft.net/article/103525/