From Singapore to India, Nepal and Myanmar, Asia must ‘adapt’ to heatwaves

Name: Tourists flock to Xinjiang’s scenic spot to experience 80-degree Celsius heat
Uploaded: 2023-07-31T01:30:07.000Z
Duration: 1 min 46 s
Description: Tourists flock to Xinjiang’s scenic spot to experience 80-degree Celsius heat

Climate scientists have said July’s brutal and deadly heat is likely ‘unprecedented’ for thousands of years, and warned it’s a taste of what’s to come

‘Even if we stop burning fossil fuels now, temperatures will not go down … the heatwaves we are seeing, we definitely have to live with that’

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A Kashmiri teenager jumps into a stream to beat the heat on the outskirts of Srinagar, India, on July 5. Photo: EPA-EFE

Biman Mukherji

Published: 9:30am, 31 Jul 2023

Each time Singapore residents wake up in the coming weeks and months, they are likely to check for heat alerts as part of their morning routine before heading off to work or school.

Such a scenario may have been unthinkable less than a decade ago, but it’s something that people in the Asian financial hub will have to get used to, with the city state planning to issue regular warnings about extreme temperatures.

The authorities in Singapore are not being overly cautious, either, as climate scientists confirmed this week that July will be the hottest-ever month on record.

UN and EU monitors said the recent heat was likely unprecedented for thousands of years, and warned it was just a taste of the climate future to come.

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Tourists flock to Xinjiang’s scenic spot to experience 80-degree Celsius heat

Similarly warm conditions prevailed only 120,000 years ago, according to an analysis by Leipzig University climate scientist Dr Karsten Haustein.

“With climate change, many countries in the world, including Singapore, are seeing rising temperatures. It is therefore important for members of the public to adapt,” the city state’s Sustainability Ministry and National Environment Agency said in a recent joint statement.