Thursday, July 15, 2010

Taiwan heat wave

Taipei Times - archives: "Over the last few days the temperature in Taiwan has shot up and the media has been awash with articles of how people can avoid the worst of the heat wave. The papers have also been full of stories about the number of heat-related deaths. Questions have been raised as to the potential health risks posed by the scorching heat, when in fact the best way to deal with this problem, and to reduce the health risks posed by climate change, is to establish some form of early warning mechanism.

Environmental protection and health professionals in Taiwan have for many years now taken the impact of global warming on health very seriously. The National Science Council (NSC) has also been aware of the problem for some time. National Taiwan University set up the Global Change Research Center (GCRC) a while back, and the NSC is funding academic research into the effect of climate change in Taiwan and what ecological changes are going to mean for people’s health, predicting how the situation is likely to evolve.

Over the last century Taiwan’s average temperature has increased by between 1.1 and 1.4 percent, twice the global average. The temperature of the surrounding oceans has risen at a higher rate, having a considerable impact on the fishing ecology."

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