Links

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/08/02/your-viewing-guide-to-the-best-meteor-shower-in-years-2018s-perseids/#2ee5907030e3
Aug. 2, 2018
Your Viewing Guide To The Best Meteor Shower In Years: 2018's Perseids


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/02/ivanka-trump-latest-family-separations-criticism-complex-issue
Aug. 2, 2018
Ivanka Trump has claimed she is “vehemently against” the separation of parents and children at the US-Mexico border but stopped short of condemning her father’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy.
Donald Trump’s daughter, speaking at an event hosted by the Axios website in Washington DC, also parted company with the president over his description of the media as “the enemy of the people”.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/02/wildfire-events-air-quality-health-issues-in-western-us
Aug. 2, 2018
Huge wildfires in California have killed at least six people and razed hundreds of homes. A pall of smoke has shrouded much of California and has wafted eastwards, with Nasa satellites showing fingers of smoke billowing as far as Salt Lake City, Utah.
Much of the smoke from the two fires – near the city of Redding and another close to Yosemite national park - has remained close to ground level, prompting air quality warnings.
“A big wildfire event not only impacts local communities but also people hundreds of miles away,” said Richard Peltier, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Massachusetts. “Even if your home isn’t being destroyed and you think ‘this isn’t my problem’ you could suffer serious health effects.”
Once a forest turns into a roaring fire, plumes of sooty smoke containing gases and microscopic particles are released. This can cause a range of symptoms such as coughing, burning eyes and shortness of breath.
More seriously, the smoke can trigger asthma attacks or, more chronically, lead to heart problems and has even been linked to the development of cancer.
There is evidence that the increase in wildfires is already taking a toll on Americans’ health. While overall air quality has improved in the US over the past 30 years, wildfire-prone states in the northwest are a glaring exception and are actually getting worse, new research has found.


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/31/chinas-most-populous-area-could-be-uninhabitable-by-end-of-century
July 31, 2018
The deadliest place on the planet for extreme future heatwaves will be the north China plain, one of the most densely populated regions in the world and the most important food-producing area in the huge nation.
New scientific research shows that humid heatwaves that kill even healthy people within hours will strike the area repeatedly towards the end of the century thanks to climate change, unless there are heavy cuts in carbon emissions.
“This spot is going to be the hottest spot for deadly heatwaves in the future,” said Prof Elfatih Eltahir, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, who led the new study. The projections for China’s northern plain are particularly worrying because many of the region’s 400 million people are farmers and have little alternative to working outside.
Climate change is the key driver, but the massive irrigation used on crops on the north China plain was found to be significant too, adding about 0.5C to the high WBTs. This is because the evaporation of irrigation water leads to higher humidity and because water vapour is itself a powerful greenhouse gas.
[And as the temperature increases, more irrigation will be needed.]