Extreme heat for US and Russia

摘要

SUPERPOWERS beware. More intense heatwaves are in store this century as a result of greenhouse gas emissions. The grim news comes from two studies that modelled how climate change will affect heatwaves in the US and Russia. Russia already has a heatwave problem. Its worst for 40 years struck in summer 2010. Temperatures passed 40℃, compared with a seasonal average of 23℃ and the heatwave lasted all of July and into mid-August. It resulted in the deaths of 55,000 people in western Russia -14,000 in Moscow alone - and caused economic losses of $15 billion, not least through the loss of 9 million hectares of crops.