Climate waves

For many of us in India, it seems ludicrous that a 37 deg C temperature (normal for summer) amounts to a heat wave. But heat wave it is in Russia which has not known these kinds of temperatures. The daily mortality rate in Moscow has doubled and morgues are overflowing amid an acrid smog caused by the worst heat wave in Russia's thousand-year history. Over 15,000 are feared dead so far! The heat wave began on June 27.

The smog from the peat and forest fires burning in the countryside around 60 miles outside the city has choked Moscow for days, seeping into apartments, offices, and even the metro, causing thousands to flee.

Over 15,000 likely dead in Russia, 17 nations comprising 19% of Earth's total land area set extreme heat records this year, July was "sixth straight record warm month in the tropical Atlantic".

More and more climate scientists are crediting global warming with this heat wave. University of Texas climate scientist Michael Tobis is says that “the Russian heat wave of 2010 is the first disaster unequivocally attributable to anthropogenic climate change”.

How much more real can it get? How much more urgent that more nations join Portugal in its determined effort to phase out fossil fuels?