Water became a violent force tearing apart buildings, streets and neighborhoods, and drowning humans and animals, while winds toppled trees across the region, the grip of their roots weakened by the rain-saturated soil. Roads, bridges, transmission lines and crucial infrastructure were swept away or smashed. Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimate that “climate change may have caused as much as 50% more rainfall during Hurricane Helene in some parts of Georgia and the Carolinas. Furthermore, we estimate that the observed rainfall was made up to 20 times more likely in these areas because of global warming.”The sheer amount of water Helene dumped across its 500-mile path is staggering: 40tn gallons, one scientist calculated, the equivalent of pouring the entire contents of Lake Tahoe over the region, enough water to cover the entire state of North Carolina in water 3.5ft deep. “Water is life” became a key slogan at the Dakota Access pipeline protests in 2016, but it can also be a deadly force. One of the ironies of the current situation in Asheville, North Carolina, and other hurricane-and-flood-impacted towns is that water is everywhere – muddy, contaminated water – but with broken water mains, power outages and contaminated sources, water to drink and wash with is scarce.

There have been deluges in the region before, but this was a climate disaster. Around the world, catastrophic flooding is wrecking whole regions – perhaps the worst of all were the 2022 floods that covered a third of Pakistan, but the April-May floods in southern Brazil were a catastrophe that “displaced more than 80,000 people, led to over 150,000 being injured and, on the 29th of May, to 169 fatalities with 44 people still missing” as of June.Repeated floods in New England and the Houston region are among the US’s climate disasters, while the UK and continental Europe, Japan and several African nations, including Mozambique and Kenya this year, have been hit hard by flooding. Only last month, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, “In Chad, where an estimated 1.5 million people have been affected, initial assessments point to the destruction of over 164,000 homes.  Floods are not new, but the intensity and frequency of catastrophic flooding is. The climate crisis is a water crisis......read on    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/04/hurricane-helene-humanitarian-crisis-climate-disaster

Nation States are merely the reflections of CorporatIon State, Acting only in their Own Best Interests.....Sudanese factions using starvation as a weapon is ‘cowardice’, US envoy says. Tom Perriello condemns tactics of Rapid Support Forces and Sudanese military before peace talks in Geneva. Guardian Mark Townsend Julian Borger   Tue 13 Aug 2024 The US special envoy for Sudan has accused the two factions in the country’s civil war of “cowardice” before crucial peace talks that are due to start on Wednesday. Tom Perriello told the Guardian that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese military “lacked courage and honour” because of their continued use of starvation as a weapon. Such tactics have helped create the world’s largest hunger crisis, in a country once regarded as a global breadbasket. The willingness of both sides to weaponise supplies of food has led to an official declaration of famine at a displacement camp in Darfur, and more than 25 million people across Sudan are now classified as facing acute hunger. US-mediated talks aimed at ending Sudan’s 15-month war will commence on Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland. Although the RSF has agreed to participate, the Sudanese army has so far indicated it will not attend this latest diplomatic attempt to halt the fighting. The delicate nature of proceedings were not enough to prevent Perriello from venting his frustration, particularly over the continuing efforts by both sides to disrupt the planting and harvesting of crops in Sudan, and the blocking of humanitarian aid. He said: “It is not only a clear violation of international humanitarian law by both sides, it’s just cowardice.

HEALTH Lawmakers and advocates in several cities are pushing provisions to protect tenants from the hottest days by requiring a maximum indoor temperature. Bloomberg     New analysis of data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found heat-related deaths more than doubled between 1999 and 2023, totalling 21,500 over that period. From 2016 on, the data show steady increases year over year, according to the study published in the medical journal JAMA.  “Things are changing because they have to, something's got to give,” said Tara Raghuveer, founding director of the Tenant Union Federation — a national “union of unions” that launched in August. “The emergency in our homes is at a level that is actually untenable.” New York City Council member Lincoln Restler, who represents downtown Brooklyn, proposed a bill in July requiring landlords to install and maintain air conditioning units in rental units. From mid-June to mid-September, temperatures inside units must stay below 78 degrees Fahrenheit when temperatures outdoors exceed 81 degrees. If passed, landlords would get four years to make necessary upgrades, or face fines of up to $1,250 each day for non compliance. 

In Los Angeles — where a record-breaking heat wave has caused power outages and school closures — county officials approved a motion in January to craft an ordinance that would establish a “safe maximum temperature threshold” for residential rental units, and require them to be “cooling ready” so that tenants can install their own systems.These follow similar provisions already in effect in mostly hotter parts of the US: Dallas and Houston in Texas, Palm Springs in California, and Montgomery County in Maryland all have some requirement that landlords provide adequate cooling to avoid exceeding a temperature threshold, which varies by place from 80 to 85 degrees. In Phoenix, one of the hottest cities in the US, landlords have to repair A/C units within 10 days of tenants filing a written complaint. Raghuveer says her group is also pushing for a suite of renter protections, which would include cooling access, as a requirement for landlords with federally backed mortgages for their properties. To the north, tenant organizations in Canada are pushing similar demands. This summer, advocacy groups from Toronto and Calgary have both called for city bylaws that would require landlords to cool properties to 26C (79F). There’s also a push in the Hamilton, Ontario, city council to be the first in Canada to mandate a cap on temperatures inside rentals.....read on    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-10/los-angeles-toronto-consider-air-conditioning-mandates-amid-heat-waves?cmpid=BBD091024_CITYLAB&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=240910&utm_campaign=citylabdaily 

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) have come together to stage this virtual conference, in which they will urge national governments, local authorities, humanitarian groups, companies, school and hospitals to develop heat action plans. They will float the idea of naming heatwaves in the same way that typhoons or hurricanes are labelled to make them more prominent Jagan Chapagain, the IFRC secretary general, drew comparisons to Kim Stanley Robinson’s apocalyptic novel Ministry for the Future, which opens with a deadly heatwave in India Wed 29 Nov 2023 that kills millions of people, some of whom are poached alive in a lake they hoped to cool off in. “It is, for now, science fiction,” he said. “We’re not there, yet. But extreme heat, far less visually dramatic than hurricanes or floods, is claiming lives and livelihoods with a stealth which belies its impact. Climate change is dramatically increasing the probability that we will see a mass-fatality extreme heat disaster soon.” One of the primary goals of the heat summit is to improve data collection, which is currently done on a piecemeal basis, often using different standards from country to country. Last year, France estimated it had 5,000 heat-related deaths, Germany 3,000 and the UK 2,295. Yet far more populous countries in Asia reported much lower tolls, despite higher temperatures and lower public investment in healthcare. India registered 179 heat-related deaths, Pakistan 22 and Malaysia and Thailand two each. In reality, there is no doubt that the most heat-vulnerable people live in poorer, hotter countries. Most at risk are the elderly, sick and those who work outside or live in poorly-ventilated homes without air conditioning. This week’s summit aims to draw more attention to their plight and to best practice in disaster alerts and response. In many cases, cities are leading the way.

Freetown in Sierra Leone is one of the pioneers. Its mayor, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, who will speak at this week’s summit, has appointed a heat officer to draw up and administer an action plan. This includes heatmapping the city to identify the highest-risk areas, sending out temperature forecasts by WhatsApp groups, the installation of shades over outdoor markets and the creation of 24 “cool corridors” by 2030 through a tree planting campaign. The city is also hosting a pilot programme in the shantytowns where 45% of the population live, coating corrugated iron roofs with a mirrored film that can reflect the sun’s energy away from the building below. Initial tests suggest this can reduce temperatures inside by as much as 6C. Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in other countries are also putting more effort into heatwave preparedness. Before a recent heatwave in Hanoi, volunteers parked mobile “cooling buses” – offering air conditioning, cool water and a shaded place to sit – in areas frequented by street vendors, motorcycle riders and other outdoor workers......read on              https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/27/extreme-heat-summit-to-urge-leaders-to-act-on-threat-from-rising-temperatures