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CHINA UNDER SOME SERIOUS HEAT

            From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

    DAY   USA  WORLD    Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82
July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572
Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130
Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82
Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85
Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118
Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465
Jan     14       4142      15512        1151        189      712
Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398
Mar      2       1989     9490        1726       110      194
April     6        906    11787         4211       631       37
May     4        853     13667        3025      3786     59 
June    1        287    10637         2346      3205      95
 July    7         251      8440        1595        817      411
Aug     4         656    10120        1118        532      423 
Sept   22      2228      9326          839       279     124
Oct      6       2102      8255          543       315       59
Nov    3        1436      7830         186        458       23
Dec     1       1633      8475          266        477       28
Jan     7        2025      6729         148         285     140
Feb     2        2990   12012          946        991      175
Mar     2        1778     7756          335         173       28 
Apr     1         439      4056         290         52        12
May    5         225      2404        151            ?        64 
June    2        216      1413          130          10        31 
July    7         320       1958        297          38         9 
Aug   4         311        2138          258          70         ? 
         10        429       2400        254          53         ?
         11         290       1994         173          49         ?
        17          461       2502         246         72         ?
        18          264      1950         202           ?         ?
         24         369      2140         190          36        2
        25          245      1909         197          68        ?

Summary:  Nothing much more to say except that Japan  yesterday had the most new cases with 237,410, while S. Korea at #2 had 113,281.  The USA was at #3, but with "only" 59,719 cases.

A couple of days ago New Scientist reported:

HEATWAVE IN CHINA IS THE MOST SEVERE EVER RECORDED IN THE WORLD

NPR (Emily Feng) said:  China battles its worst heat wave on record.

  • China has had a continuous heat wave of 70 days, the longest in recorded modern history.
  • More than 240 cities this week had temperatures above 104F.
  • A national drought alert was announced for the first time 9 years.
  • Sichuan province, and this a location of 80 million people, is about 80% reliant on hydropower.  Except that there is no rain, with a huge demand for air conditioning.  Power was cut off to factories for a week so the local population could use it.  A lot of American companies like Intel and Texas Instruments are there, meaning that the global semiconductor shortage will worsen.
  • Like in many other places, the Sichuan youth unemployment rate is at 20%, although feared to be much higher.
  • MIT in 2018 forecast that this part of northern China could become unlivable by the end of this country because of global warming.  The Persian Gulf is also mentioned.  Read the article and watch a video.  The lead author, Elfatih Eltahir, said that China is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, which will limit habitability of the most populous region of the most populous country. To quote:
At a wet-bulb temperature of 35 degrees Celsius (95 F), a healthy person may not be able to survive outdoors for more than six hours, research has shown. The new study shows that under business-as-usual scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions, that threshold will be reached several times in the NCP region between 2070 and 2100.
  • Clearly, they will not have to wait until 2070.
  • Rain will no doubt come.  But that also will mean flash floods and death, something that has bedeviled the USA this summer.

I close with some irony.  China has built 87,000 dams, and is using water supply as a political weapon.

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