Temperatures are rising all over Asia, including shorter, warmer winters, longer, hotter summers, and more extreme events like droughts and floods. Combined with population increase, the result is much higher demand for electricity, as people in the cities look to cool off. It is with a high degree of confidence that a broad array of atmospheric events across Asia, such as altered monsoons, dust storms, heat waves and thawing permafrost have been attributed to global warming.
Storms and sea-level rise have damaged settlements and threatened cities throughout southern Asia. Meanwhile, snow and ice loss and increasingly irregular rain and snowfall have made droughts and water scarcity events more common. Patterns of precipitation have changed, with some areas (mostly those already arid) becoming still drier, with longer, more severe dry seasons and shorter, weaker rainy seasons. Some wetter regions have gained in biodiversity and agricultural productivity, while others have suffered damage from both severe rainfalls and droughts, both of which have reduced or destroyed harvests.
In cities, heat waves have led to higher death rates during warm months. Infrastructure such as power plants and electrical grids have not always been able to keep up with demand. Health systems—hospitals, clinics and medical supply chains, and—have at times buckled under extreme demand, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile both vector-borne and water-borne diseases have become more common, as well as malnutrition and mental health problems. Societal models show these trends accelerating with global temperature rise.
Migration is already on the rise, and is also expected to increase with rising temperature. Bangladesh, China, India and the Philippines have each experienced disaster-related flight of more than 4 million citizens. Bangladesh is looked at as one of the world’s most vulnerable nations, under imminent threat from sea level rise plus storm activity. The economic impacts, in storm, flood- and drought-related damage, and diminished quality of life for millions due to food and water insecurity, have grown worse in recent years and are expected to worsen still more in years to come.
Tomorrow: Australasia.
Be brave, be steadfast and be well.
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