Pakistan floods: before-and-after images show extent of devastation

More than 1,100 people have been killed in flooding described by Pakistan PM Shebaz Sharif as worst in country’s history

New satellite images show the extent of the devastation caused by catastrophic flooding and rains in Pakistan.

The images, from Planet Labs and Maxar, show swaths of green fields, villages and buildings before monsoonal rains and flooding began lashing the country in June.

Satellite images reveal the same areas months or weeks later covered in brown water. In some parts roads have disappeared and flood waters have created their own rivers.

The pictures depict severe flooding across the country, from Sindh province in the south, to the Kabul river in the north.

The floods, described by prime minister Shebaz Sharif as the worst in Pakistan’s history, have so far killed more than 1,100 people and displaced millions. Sharif said it would cost at least $10bn to repair damaged infrastructure spread across the country.

More than 33 million people, or one in seven Pakistanis, have been affected by the flooding.

Around a half million of those displaced are living in organised camps, while others have had to find their own shelter.

The rains that began in June have washed away vital crops and damaged or destroyed more than a million homes.

Authorities and charities are struggling to accelerate aid delivery to those affected, a challenging task in areas cut off because many roads and bridges have been critically damaged.

Displaced people have been wandering what dry land remains, seeking shelter, food and drinking water.

Sharif said the floods badly destroyed crops, and his government was considering importing wheat to avoid any shortage of food. Pakistan receives heavy, and often destructive, rains during its annual monsoon season, which are crucial for agriculture and water supplies. But such intense downpours have not been seen for three decades.

Pakistani officials and others have blamed climate change, which is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather around the world.

UN secretary-general António Guterres said Pakistan’s flooding were a signal to the world to step up action against climate change.

“Let’s stop sleepwalking toward the destruction of our planet by climate change,” he said in a video message to an Islamabad ceremony launching the funding appeal. “Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country.”

The disaster comes at a difficult time for Pakistan, where the economy is in freefall. Appealing for international help, the government has declared an emergency. The UN launched a formal $160m appeal on Tuesday to fund emergency aid.

“Pakistan is awash in suffering. The Pakistani people are facing a monsoon on steroids – the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding,” Guterres said.

Agence France-Presse and Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

Martianization - China drought causes Yangtze river to dry up, sparking shortage of hydropower

 A nationwide alert has been issued with the south-west especially badly hit, and even parts of the mighty Yangtze drying up

The dried-out riverbed of the Jialing river, a major tributary of the Yangtze in Chongqing, China. Photograph: EPA

A record-breaking drought has caused some rivers in China – including parts of the Yangtze – to dry up, affecting hydropower, halting shipping, and forcing major companies to suspend operations.

A nationwide drought alert was issued on Friday as a long-running and severe heatwave in China’s heavily populated south-west was forecast to continue well into September.

The loss of water flow to China’s extensive hydropower system has sparked a “grave situation” in Sichuan, which gets more than 80% of its energy from hydropower.

On Sunday the provincial government declared it was at the highest warning level of “particularly severe”, with water flow to Sichuan’s hydropower reservoirs dropping by half. The demand for electricity, meanwhile, has increased by 25% this summer, local media reported.

Last week the province suspended or limited power supply to thousands of factories and rationed public electricity usage due to the shortage. Toyota, Foxconn and Tesla are among companies reported to have temporarily suspended operations at some plants over the last fortnight. On Sunday the South China Morning Post reported plans to restart production this week had been postponed.

The Yangtze is the world’s third largest river, providing drinking water to more than 400 million Chinese people, and is the most vital waterway to China’s economy. It is also crucial to the global supply chain, but this summer it has reached record-low water levels, with entire sections and dozens of tributaries drying up. Water flow on the Yangtze’s main trunk is more than 50% below the average of the last five years. Shipping routes in the middle and lower sections of the river have also closed, the SCMP reported.

Across the affected regions of China authorities are rushing to ensure water and power supply, as the region approaches harvest season for water-intensive crops like rice and soy. On Sunday authorities discharged 980m cubic meters of water from reservoirs in an effort to replenish lower levels of the river, state media said.

The drought has affected at least 2.46 million people and 2.2m hectares of agricultural land in Sichuan, Hebei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Chongqing. More than 780,000 people have needed direct government support because of the drought, according to China’s ministry of emergency management. Drinking water has been trucked in to areas where residential supplies have completely dried up. High temperatures in July alone caused direct economic losses of 2.73bn yuan ($400m), affecting 5.5 million people, the emergency ministry said last week.

In the city of Chongqing the water level dropped to reveal previously submerged Buddhist statues thought to be about 600 years old.

Around the world major rivers are drying up as record-breaking heatwaves take a devastating toll, including the Rhine and the Loire in Europe, and the Colorado river in the US.

Bernice Lee, chair of the advisory board at the Chatham House sustainability accelerator in London, said societies including China have remained “unprepared and underprepared” for high-impact, low-probability events like extreme droughts and heatwave.

“Looking to the future, as the frequency of extreme weather events looks set to grow, the future could be even more bleak.”

Chinese authorities have repeatedly attributed the drought and heatwave to climate change. Chen Lijuan, chief forecaster of the country’s national climate centre, last week described the combined heatwave and drought as a “pressure cooker”.

“We have to face the fact that similar heatwaves will occur frequently in the future … it will become a new normal,” Chen said.

However the immediate impact on electricity supplies has put pressure on Beijing’s climate change commitments. Last week vice-premier Han Zheng said the government would step up support for coal-fired power production.

Warnings are in place for continued high temperatures and low rain. A red heat warning – the highest level of alert – was issued for the 10th consecutive day on Sunday for large swathes of the country.

Additional reporting by Vincent Ni, Xiaoqian Zhu, and agencies

Martianization - Europe’s rivers run dry as scientists warn drought could be worst in 500 years. The Guardian

Crops, power plants, barge traffic, industry and fish populations devastated by parched waterways

In places, the Loire can now be crossed on foot; France’s longest river has never flowed so slowly. The Rhine is fast becoming impassable to barge traffic. In Italy, the Po is 2 metres lower than normal, crippling crops. Serbia is dredging the Danube.

Across Europe, drought is reducing once-mighty rivers to trickles, with potentially dramatic consequences for industry, freight, energy and food production – just as supply shortages and price rises due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine bite.

Driven by climate breakdown, an unusually dry winter and spring followed by record-breaking summer temperatures and repeated heatwaves have left Europe’s essential waterways under-replenished and, increasingly, overheated.

With no significant rainfall recorded for almost two months across western, central and southern Europe and none forecast in the near future, meteorologists say the drought could become the continent’s worst in more than 500 years.

“We haven’t analysed fully this year’s event because it is still ongoing,” said Andrea Toreti of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. “There were no other events in the past 500 [years] similar to the drought of 2018. But this year, I think, is worse.”

Germany’s Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) said the level of the Rhine, whose waters are used for freight transport, irrigation, manufacturing, power generation and drinking, will continue dropping until at least the beginning of next week.

On Friday the water at the critical Kaub marker 50km downstream from Mainz – which measures navigability, rather than the water depth – fell below 40cm, the level at which many shipping firms consider it is no longer economical for barges to operate. It could fall to nearer 30cm over the next few days, the BfG has said.

Many barges, which carry coal for power plants and vital raw materials for industrial giants such as steelmaker Thyssen and chemical giant BASF, are already operating at about 25% capacity to reduce their draft, raising shipping costs up to fivefold.

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A vital part of northwest Europe’s economy for centuries, the 760 miles (1,233km) of the Rhine flow from Switzerland through Germany’s industrial heartland before reaching the North Sea at the megaport of Rotterdam.

A total halt in Rhine barge traffic would hit Germany’s – and Europe’s – economy hard: experts have calculated that a six-month suspension in 2018 cost around €5bn (£4.2bn), with low water levels forecast to cost Germany 0.2 points of economic growth this year.

While the EU has said boosting waterborne freight by 25% is one of the bloc’s green transition priorities, Germany is now working to divert it to rail and road – although between 40 and 100 trucks are needed to replace a standard barge load.

France’s rivers might not be such key freight arteries, but they do serve to cool the nuclear plants that produce 70% of the country’s electricity. As prices hit all-time highs, power giant EDF has been forced to reduce output because of the drought.

Strict rules regulate how far nuclear plants can raise river temperatures when they discharge cooling water – and if record low water levels and high air temperatures mean the river is already overheated, they have no option but to cut output. With Europe’s looming energy crisis mounting and the Garonne, Rhône and Loire rivers already too warm to allow cooling water to be discharged, the French nuclear regulator last week allowed five plants to temporarily break the rules.

Quiet flows the Po: the life and slow death of Italy’s longest river

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In Italy, the flow of the parched Po, Italy’s longest river, has fallen to one-tenth of its usual rate, and water levels are 2 metres below normal. With no sustained rainfall in the region since November, corn and risotto rice production have been hard hit.

The Po valley accounts for between 30% and 40% of Italy’s agricultural production, but rice growers in particular have warned that up to 60% of their crop may be lost as paddy fields dry out and are spoiled by seawater sucked in by the low river level.

In the protected wetlands of the river’s delta, near Venice, its high temperature and sluggish flow have reduced the water’s oxygen content to the extent that an estimated 30% of clams growing in the lagoon have already been killed off.

Low river levels and high water temperatures can prove fatal to many species. In Bavaria, the Danube reached 25C last week and could hit 26.5C by mid-month, meaning its oxygen content would fall below six parts per million – fatal for trout.

Freight on the 2,850km of the Danube has also been heavily disrupted, prompting authorities in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria to start dredging deeper channels while barges carrying mainly fuel for the power generators wait to advance.

Even Norway, which relies on hydropower for about 90% of its electricity generation, has said the unusually low levels of its reservoirs may ultimately oblige it to limit power exports.

Martianization - Brazil - Taxa de desmatamento na Amazônia ainda é alarmante, dizem EUA

Governo Biden diz que vai trabalhar com setor privado e povos indígenas pela preservação no Brasil

 

Thiago Amâncio

WASHINGTON

As taxas de desmatamento da Amazônia "ainda são alarmantes e exigem atenção redobrada e ação reforçada" do governo, disse o Departamento de Estado dos Estados Unidos nesta sexta-feira (12), após a divulgação dos dados mais recentes do Inpe (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais).

Os números apontam que, de agosto de 2021 até julho de 2022, foram derrubados 8.590,33 km² do bioma, o equivalente a mais de cinco cidades de São Paulo. O novo dado só fica atrás dos períodos de 2019-2020 e de 2020-2021, respectivamente o primeiro e o segundo ano com maiores desmates, segundo o Deter.

O Deter não tem a função de mensuração precisa de desmatamento. Para isso, o Inpe conta com o Prodes, sistema com maior precisão que divulga os dados de desmate —computados sempre de agosto de um ano a julho do ano seguinte— nos últimos meses do ano. Mesmo assim, a partir do Deter, cujo objetivo primário é o auxílio a operações de combate ao desmate, é possível ver se há tendências de queda, manutenção ou aumento de destruição.

 

À Folha, o Departamento de Estado afirmou que os EUA "continuarão a trabalhar" com partes interessadas na preservação da floresta, "inclusive no setor privado, sociedade civil, povos indígenas e governos subnacionais" na conservação e restauração de florestas, além de "incentivar o governo a implementar políticas" para cumprir os objetivos acordados na COP26, entre os quais acabar com o desmatamento ilegal até 2028 e reduzir as emissões de poluentes em 50% abaixo dos níveis de 2005 até 2030.

"Saudamos as metas ambiciosas anunciadas pelo governo brasileiro na COP26 e em outros fóruns internacionais. O foco agora mudou para a implementação desses objetivos."

"Também estamos aumentando nosso foco em apoiar os esforços de fiscalização do Brasil para combater o desmatamento ilegal. Estamos ansiosos para saber mais sobre os esforços do governo do Brasil para reduzir o desmatamento à luz dos números mais recentes", disse o órgão.

O compromisso com as pautas de preservação ambiental foi um dos principais pontos de tensão entre os governos Jair Bolsonaro e Joe Biden, com o democrata e correligionários criticando o mandatário brasileiro pelo pouco apreço à pauta ambiental.

Os números divulgados nesta sexta deixam ainda mais consolidados os patamares altíssimos de desmatamento alcançados durante o governo Bolsonaro.

Só no ciclo mais recente (agosto/21 até julho/22) foram cinco meses com os números mais elevados de destruição já vistos para aqueles meses: outubro (876,56 km²), janeiro (430,44 km²), fevereiro (198,67 km²), abril (1.026,35 km²) e junho (1.120,2 km²).

Levando em conta dados do Deter, já foram derrubados mais de 31 mil km² de Amazônia desde o início do governo Bolsonaro, em 2019. Isso equivale a, aproximadamente, mais de 720 km² de floresta indo ao chão mensalmente, o que representa mais de 450 parques Ibirapuera destruídos todo mês.

O valor é consideravelmente superior ao que se via em mandatos presidenciais anteriores. De agosto de 2015 (início do novo Deter) até o afastamento da presidente Dilma Rousseff (PT) pela abertura do processo de impeachment, em maio de 2016 (nove meses), foram derrubados cerca de 364 km² de Amazônia por mês.

Nos 32 meses do governo de Michel Temer (MDB), já levando em conta os meses de afastamento de Dilma, foram desmatados cerca de 420 km² de Amazônia por mês.

Bolsonaro chegou também a desautorizar operação de combate ao desmate em andamento. No primeiro ano de governo, conforme dados do Deter apontavam uma disparada na destruição, o presidente questionou a qualidade do trabalho do Inpe, afirmando que o então diretor do instituto, Ricardo Galvão (agora pré-candidato a deputado federal pela Rede Sustentabilidade), poderia estar a "serviço de alguma ONG". Galvão respondeu ao ataque sofrido e acabou deixando o Inpe.

 

Martianization - EU countries rush to help France tackle ‘monstrous’ wildfires

Firefighters from Romania, Poland, Austria, Greece and Italy fight blazes in show of ‘European solidarity’

Hundreds of firefighters from across the EU have been rushed to France to help battle wildfires in an unprecedented show of international solidarity.

Most are stationed along a 26 mile (40km) active fire-front in the south-west, where a blaze described as “monstrous” continued to devastate pine forests.

German firefighters and their vehicles arrived in the early hours of Friday morning to help tackle the massive Landiras fire in the Gironde and the Landes, south of Bordeaux, which had sparked up again this week after destroying swathes of forest in July.

Romanian firefighters and teams from Poland, Austria, Greece and Italy were also deployed to help more than 1,100 French firefighters try to contain the blaze. President Emmanuel Macron tweeted of the more than 360 firefighters arriving with vehicles and planes: “Our partners are coming to France’s aid against the fires. Thank you to them. European solidarity is at work!”

In a summer of extreme heat and drought, France has faced its most serious forest fires in years. One local firefighter described the Landiras blaze in south-west France as “a sleeping monster which can wake at any gust of wind”.

The French state broadcaster reported that since the start of the year, 56,000 hectares of forest had burned in France – three times the annual average this decade. There have also been forest fires in northern regions not usually hit by summer blazes, including in Brittany, where firefighting planes arrived from Sweden to help.

Authorities in the Gironde said in a statement that more than 7,400 hectares of forest had burned in the Landiras fire, France’s biggest blaze. They said that although the fire had not developed further overnight, high temperatures and dry conditions expected on Friday meant there was a “severe risk” of the fire spreading, and it would be a “complicated” day for fire teams.

The fire had already destroyed 14,000 hectares in July – the driest month in France since 1961 – before being contained, but it had never been fully extinguished and had continued to smoulder in the region’s peat-rich soil before erupting again this week in the tinder-dry pine forests.

Since flaring up again on Tuesday, the fire, which officials suspect may have been caused by arson, has burned through 7,400 hectares, destroyed or damaged 17 homes, and forced 10,000 people to flee, Lieut-Col Arnaud Mendousse of the Gironde fire and rescue service told AFP.

There can be no more hiding, and no more denying. Global heating is supercharging extreme weather at an astonishing speed, and it’s visible in Brazil and beyond. Guardian analysis recently revealed how human-caused climate breakdown is accelerating the toll of extreme weather across the planet. People across the world are losing their lives and livelihoods due to more deadly and more frequent heatwaves, floods, wildfires and droughts triggered by the climate crisis. At the Guardian, we will not stop giving this life-altering issue the urgency and attention it demands. We have a huge global team of climate writers around the world and have recently appointed an extreme weather correspondent. 

 

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