heat

In what its authors admit is almost certainly an underestimate, a new study says the catastrophic climate changes coming to the Arctic will cost at least $2.4 trillion by mid-century. (To put that into perspective, President Obama just proposed a $3.8 trillion federal government budget for next year.)

The true cost is likely to be a whole lot more -- probably in the range of the combined gross domestic products of Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom, says the report, which was financed by the Pew Environment Group.

A melting Arctic heats the climate in two basic ways: First, when all the white snow and ice on the land and in the ocean melts, the darker colors underneath absorb more heat instead of reflecting it.

The second thing that happens is that as the permafrost melts, it releases methane -- remember methane, that other greenhouse gas, the one we fingered not long ago for its powerful greenhouse punch?

The researchers came up with estimates of how much both of these effects will have and converted those numbers into carbon dioxide equivalents -- i.e., how much of that better-known greenhouse you'd have to release to create this much climate warming.

Those figures are sobering: The amount of warming to be wrought this year alone by Arctic melting will equal about 42 percent of all the emissions from the United States! That's the equivalent of building 500 new coal-burning power plants.

Hot weather and a cold economy have combined to drive up domestic violence cases, according to local law enforcement officials in Deming, New Mexico. Cases often increase in summer months because of heat-related stress, but an increasing number of cases also seem to have joblessness and money worries as aggravating factors, writes Kevin Buey of the Deming Headlight.

Eight-five percent of British Columbia faces a high or extreme danger of fires as a summer heat wave has dried the province's forests, Rod Mickleburgh reports in the Globe and Mail today. Thousands of people have been ordered out of their homes and campgrounds in the face of the oncoming flames. Meanwhile, in Vancouver, police report that an arsonist tried to start four fires in the city's best-known and -loved park, Stanley Park.