Boiling in Paris- Canicule
 

NPR just has a report on from Paris where the temps have hit 37 degrees Celsius or 99 degrees F. Hopefully older people are being better protected than in the infamous summer of 2004 when up to 15,000 were said to have died from the canicule (heat wave) that lasted practically the whole summer. (I was in Interlaken and the temps at the Jungfraujoch reached 30 C or 86 whereas normally it's about freezing. In Interlaken itself the temp was 95 degrees at 11 at night each day i was there.

Hey - it's summer - yesterday back over yonder in the old US of A there was 110 degrees in Sacramento, CA, 103 in Denver, CO, and so it goes. Let's enjoy it, shall we? Summer will soon be gone again. It's only natural!

WK

I am reminded of the oft-posted question which starts out, "Is A/C needed in...?"

well the Parisian they were interviewing touched on that - that before 2004 heat wave rarely any homes had them and now more and more have at least window ACs- hotels of course will have to bump up their AC if the canicule becomes a yearly summer happening. As for now special attention is being given elders by the city government.

It was 106° F on the street today in Paris. The "official" temperatures are measured in boxes housed in shady parks; the actual temperatures in the city, in the areas where people live and work, are much higher.

Now, 106° would be quite normal for Las Vegas, but it is high enough to be alarming for Paris. And it is becoming more and more the rule for summer. Historically, the highest daily temperatures in Paris during the peak of summer have been around 74° F. The current temperatures are 30° higher, and these levels are being hit again and again each year.

Anyone who looks at the data can't help but be worried, but most people seem to think it's just a passing exception to the rule. When I look at the data, I notice its eerie similarity to <i>The Day After Tomorrow</i>.

I think the days of tolerable summers in Paris may be gone now, and I feel for tourists who come here and will experience only the hellish summers that are now becoming normal. They may wonder how Parisians survived such summers in the past. Well, the answer is that <i>there were no such summers in the past;</i> even ten years ago, temperatures were still in the 70s during the summer. But not anymore.

It's really not that hard to deal with.

In NYC they just open cooling centers run by the city - using armories or other large public buildings with AC - and those who have none (many older buildings are not wired for AC and the slum lords won;t pay for it - even if the tenants could afford ac) - can stay there.

That is only a temporary solution, but the climate change is permanent. Eventually, everything will have to be air-conditioned, just like Phoenix or Dubai.

I believe the infamous heat wave was in 2003, not 2004.

In Denver, we're experiencing record-breaking heat, combined with drought conditions. We are still about 5 inches behind in rainfall for the city. And June broke records for number of days in the 90s, plus number of days over 100. Even some power outages because older transformers can't handle the demand.
&quot;It's only natural&quot; --?? Nope, nature doesn't explain this world-wide phenomenon. It's man-made IMHO.

&gt;nature doesn't explain this world-wide phenomenon. It's man-made IMHO.&lt;

Ummmmmmmmmmm.

The Earth has been warming for the last 25000 years, with the exception of the Mini Ice Age.

Prior to the last Ice Age, Mammoths lived in the Polar reaches of Canada and Siberia.

Prior to the Mini Ice Age, Scandinavians established farming communities in Greenland and Nova Scotia.

The Sahara Desert was once the Sahara Forest.

None of these major global changes were caused by humans.

I submit that current global warming might be mildly exacerbated by human activity, but that it is natural.

((I))

Ira--

Those natural warming trends you cite took place over millenia. Those of us who are firmly convinced that global warming is for real are concerned because of how rapidly these increases in global temperatures are happening.

Normally I would never let myself get involved in this kind of debate (on a travel forum no less), but tonight I can't help myself. Those who say the temperature increase is &quot;natural&quot; (as in not caused by humans - please don't get into a debate over whether humans are &quot;natural&quot; or not) are missing a very critical fact:

Never, in the history of the planet, has a temperature increase of such magnitude been observed IN SUCH A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. (And yes, we are capable of determining the amount and timing of these temperature changes by measuring the gas content of air bubbles in ice cores, taking deep sea sediment cores, and various other techniques.)

Posters have mentioned how much hotter it is &quot;than we remember.&quot; In the scale of global history, mere humans like ourselves would never be able to detect the temperature change. The mammoths didn't just wake up one morning, realize it was too hot, and die off. It happened over hundreds and thousands of years.

It is the TIME factor, not just the actual temperature change, that makes an enormous difference when debating whether the earth can respond to such a dramatic temperature increase.

And even if you disagree about the cause, shouldn't you be a little concerned about what will happen to the millions of people, cultures, ecosystems, and landscapes that will be affected by rapid climate change? If we are even just a little bit responsible, shouldn't we do something about it?

Sorry julies, you posted while I was still typing my rant!

Whenever I find myself beginning to comment on how much hotter it seems now than it did years ago when I was younger, I remind myself of something. When I was a kid the old people used to sit around and complain endlessly about how hot the weather was - so much hotter than when they were children!

Thank goodness my generation has invented global warming! Now I have an excuse and not have to simply admit that I'm getting older and less tolerant of hotter weather.

When you are a kid and it is hot, you have fun at the swimming pool and stay cool.

When you are an adult and it is hot, you kvetch on fodors.

I would recommend watching &quot;An Inconvenient Truth&quot;

Yup, Luv-I second that thought. Many scientists have weighed in on this movie, and pronounced it right on the mark-no mis-information whatsoever, if anything, Al Gore is soft-pedaling the seriousness of the situation.