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By Stacy Morford, The Conversation 

Fifty years ago, U.S. scientists launched a satellite that dramatically changed how we see the world.

It captured images of Earth’s surface in minute detail, showing how wildfires burned landscapes, how farms erased forests, and many other ways humans were changing the face of the planet.

The first satellite in the Landsat series launched on July 23, 1972. Eight others followed, providing the same views so changes could be tracked over time, but with increasingly powerful instruments. Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 are orbiting the planet today, and NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey are planning a new Landsat mission.

The images and data from these satellites are used to track deforestation and changing landscapes around the world, locate urban heat islands, and understand the impact of new river dams, among many other projects. Often, the results help communities respond to risks that may not be obvious from the ground.

Here are three examples of Landsat in action, from The Conversation’s archive.

Tracking changes in the Amazon

A river meanders through the Amazon Basin, seen from Landsat.
NASA

When work began on the Belo Monte Dam project in the Brazilian Amazon in 2015, Indigenous tribes living along the Big Bend of the Xingu River started noticing changes in the river’s flow. The water they relied on for food and transportation was disappearing.

Upstream, a new channel would eventually divert as much as 80% of the water to the hydroelectric dam, bypassing the bend.

The consortium that runs the dam argued that there was no scientific proof that the change in water flow harmed fish.

But there is clear proof of the Belo Monte Dam project’s impact – from above, write Pritam Das, Faisal Hossain, Hörður Helgason and Shahzaib Khan at the University of Washington. Using satellite data from the Landsat program, the team showed how the dam dramatically altered the hydrology of the river.

“As scientists who work with remote sensing, we believe satellite observations can empower populations around the world who face threats to their resources,” Das and his colleagues write.

It’s hot in the city – and even hotter in some neighborhoods

Landsat’s instruments can also measure surface temperatures, allowing scientists to map heat risk street by street within cities as global temperatures rise.

“Cities are generally hotter than surrounding rural areas, but even within cities, some residential neighborhoods get dangerously warmer than others just a few miles away,” writes Daniel P. Johnson, who uses satellites to study the urban heat island effect at Indiana University.

Neighborhoods with more pavement and buildings and fewer trees can be 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 C) or more warmer than leafier neighborhoods, Johnson writes. He found that the hottest neighborhoods tend to be low-income, have majority Black or Hispanic residents and had been subjected to redlining, the discriminatory practice once used to deny loans in racial and ethnic minority communities.

“Within these ‘micro-urban heat islands,’ communities can experience heat wave conditions well before officials declare a heat emergency,” Johnson writes.

Knowing which neighborhoods face the highest risks allows cities to organize cooling centers and other programs to help residents manage the heat.

The making of ghost forests

Satellites that scan the same areas year after year can be crucial for spotting changes in hard-to-reach regions. They can monitor snow and ice cover, and, along U.S. Atlantic coast, dying wetland forests.

These eerie landscapes of dead, often bleached-white tree trunks have earned the nickname “ghost forests.”

Emily Ury, an ecologist now at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, used Landsat data to spot wetland changes. She then zoomed in with high-resolution images from Google Earth – which includes Landsat images – to confirm that they were ghost forests.

“The results were shocking. We found that more than 10% of forested wetland within the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge [in North Carolina] was lost over the past 35 years. This is federally protected land, with no other human activity that could be killing off the forest,” Ury writes.

As the planet warms and sea levels rise, more salt water is reaching these areas, increasing the amount of salt in the soil of coastal woodlands from Maine to Florida. “Rapid sea level rise seems to be outpacing the ability of these forests to adapt to wetter, saltier conditions,” Ury writes.

Many more stories can be found in Landsat’s images, such as an overview of the war’s effects on Ukraine’s wheat crop, and how algae blooms have spread in Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Countless projects are using Landsat data to track global change and possibly find solutions to problems, from deforestation in the Amazon to the fires that have put Alaska on pace for another historic fire season.

About the Author:

Stacy Morford, Environment + Climate Editor, The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

By Derek Lemoine, University of Arizona 

Hundreds of millions of people struggled to keep cool amid a sweltering summer heat wave as cities across the U.S. and mainland Europe experienced record-high temperatures. In the U.K., thermometers topped 104 Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) on July 19, 2022, the highest ever recorded.

While all this broiling heat is surely punishing on a personal level, it also has significant impacts on the broader economy.

As an economist who has studied the effects of weather and climate change, I have examined a large body of work that links heat to economic outcomes. Here are four ways extreme heat hurts the economy.

1. Growth takes a hit

Research has found that extreme heat can directly hurt economic growth.

For example, a 2018 study found that the economies of U.S. states tend to grow at a slower pace during relatively hot summers. The data shows that annual economic growth falls 0.15 to 0.25 percentage points for every 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.56 C) that a state’s average summer temperature is above normal.

Laborers in weather-exposed industries such as construction work fewer hours when it’s hotter. But higher summer temperatures also reduce growth in many industries that tend to involve indoor work, including retail, services and finance. Workers are less productive when it’s hotter out.

2. Crop yields drop

Agriculture is obviously exposed to weather: After all, crops grow outdoors.

While temperatures up to around 85 F to 90 F (29-32 C) can benefit crop growth, yields fall sharply when thermostats rise further. Some of the crops that can be hit hard by extreme heat include corn, soybeans and cotton. These reductions in yields could be costly for U.S. agriculture.

For example, a recent study I conducted found that an additional 2 degrees C (3.6 F) of global warming would eliminate profits from an average acre of farmland in the eastern U.S.

A prominent example of this was the collapse of the Russian wheat harvest in response to the country’s 2010 heat wave, which raised wheat prices throughout the world.

3. Energy use soars

Of course, when it’s hot, energy use goes up as people and businesses run their air conditioners and other cooling equipment at full blast.

A 2011 study found that just one extra day with temperatures above 90 F (32 C) increases annual household energy use by 0.4%. More recent research shows that energy use increases the most in places that tend to be hotter, probably because more households have air conditioning.

This increase in electricity use on hot days stresses electric grids right when people depend on them most, as seen in California and Texas during past heat waves. Blackouts can be quite costly for the economy, as inventories of food and other goods can spoil and many businesses either have to run generators or shut down. For instance, the 2019 California blackouts cost an estimated US$10 billion.

4. Education and earnings suffer

A long-term impact of increasingly hotter weather involves how it affects children’s ability to learn – and thus their future earnings.

Research has shown that hot weather during the school year reduces test scores. Math scores decrease more and more as the temperature rises beyond 70 F (21 C). Reading scores are more resistant to high temperatures, which this research claims is consistent with how different regions of the brain respond to heat.

One study suggested that students in schools that lack air conditioning learn 1% less for every 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.56 C) increase in the school year’s average temperature. It also found that minority students are especially affected by hotter school years, as their schools are more likely to lack air conditioning.

Lost learning results in lower lifetime earnings and hurts future economic growth.

The impact of extreme heat on development, in fact, begins before we’re even born. Research has found that adults who were exposed to extreme heat as fetuses earn less during their lifetimes. Each extra day with average temperature above 90 F (32 C) reduces earnings 30 years later by 0.1%.

Air conditioning can help – to a point

Air conditioning can offset some of these effects.

For example, studies have found that having a working air conditioner means fewer people die, student learning isn’t compromised and extreme heat outside during pregnancy doesn’t hurt fetuses.

Not everyone has air conditioners, however, especially in states such as Oregon and countries such as the U.K. that have more temperate climates but have nonetheless recently experienced unusually extreme temperatures. And many people can’t afford to own or operate them. Survey data from 2017 found that around half of homes in the U.S. Pacific Northwest
lacked air conditioning. And about 42% of U.S. classrooms lack an air conditioner.

While heat waves are shown to induce more households to install air conditioning, it’s hardly a panacea. By 2100, higher use of air conditioning could increase residential energy consumption by 83% globally. If that energy comes from fossil fuels, it could end up amplifying the heat waves that are causing the higher demand in the first place.

And in the U.S. South, where air conditioning is omnipresent, hotter-than-usual summers still take the greatest toll on states’ economic growth.

In other words, as temperatures rise, economies will continue to suffer.

This is an updated version of an article originally published on Aug. 2, 2021.

About the Author:

Derek Lemoine, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Arizona

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

By JustForex

The US stock indices increased yesterday on the technology sector’s growth, as better-than-expected Tesla earnings supported the sector. The Dow Jones (US30) added 0.51% at the close, while the S&P 500 (US500) increased by 0.99%. The Technology Index NASDAQ (US100) jumped by 1.36%.

Shares of Tesla Inc (TSLA) jumped by 9.7% yesterday, giving confidence to the entire industry and the sector. Shares of Snap Inc (SNAP) fell by 24% in over-the-counter trading Thursday as the company said third-quarter revenue growth was flat and its results were affected by Apple’s privacy changes. Shares of American Airlines (AAL) fell by 7% on the report, even as the company projected third-quarter earnings thanks to increased demand for travel services.

Biden tested positive for coronavirus. The US president has moderate symptoms and is working remotely.

Stock markets in Europe traded flat Thursday. German DAX (DE30) decreased by 0.27% yesterday, French CAC 40 (FR40) added 0.27%, Spanish IBEX 35 (ES35) lost 0.20%, British FTSE 100 (UK100) was up by 0.09%.

The European Central Bank unexpectedly raised its interest rate by 0.5%, even though Christine Lagarde had promised the first increase of 0.25%. The ECB report indicates that the decision is based on an updated assessment of inflation risks, as rising prices are a growing concern for households and companies. The future trajectory of interest rates will depend on the new data. ECB policymakers also agreed to provide additional assistance to the currency bloc’s 19 heavily indebted countries, including Italy, with a new bond-buying scheme designed to limit their rising borrowing costs and thus limit financial fragmentation.

Investors are also closely watching the political situation in Italy, as Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigned on Thursday, and the president accepted his resignation, followed by the dissolution of parliament.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline reopened after a 10-day hiatus. Germany’s grid regulator has indicated that they are back to a capacity level of 40%. With the resumption of gas flows through Nord Stream, investors are more conciliatory on the part of Russia to continue supplying oil and petroleum products to Europe in the coming weeks or months.

Oil prices have fallen below $100 after a massive inventory build-up in the United States. But demand remains strong in mid-summer, so with production levels lagging, traders should not expect a significant drop in prices.

Asian markets mostly rose yesterday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 (JP225) gained 2.67%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (HK50) added 1.11%, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 (AU200) closed by 1.65% higher.

Japan’s key inflation indicator was even higher than the Bank of Japan’s target of 2%. According to data released on Friday by the Ministry of the Interior, core consumer prices (excluding food and fuel prices) reached an annualized rate of 2.2%. The result was in line with economists’ estimates. Despite the continued rise in prices, the Bank of Japan is unlikely to budge anytime soon, as the Bank of Japan remains unconvinced that inflation in the country is sustainable. The BoJ Governor Kuroda has repeatedly said that current cost inflation is unsustainable and that the central bank needs constant easing until it is demand-driven and accompanied by sustained wage growth. But wage growth has not kept pace with inflation, with May data showing that real wages are down 1.8% from a year ago.

In Australia, a NAB report showed that the RBA would raise rates to 2.85% by the end of the year. Since the monetary rate is still well below “neutral,” this indicates continued rapid normalization in the coming months. This means a 50 bp interest rate hike at each of the next two meetings and then a pause to assess the impact of the rate hike.

S&P 500 (F) (US500) 3,998.95 +39.05 (+0.99%)

Dow Jones (US30) 32,036.90 +162.06 (+0.51%)

DAX (DE40) 13,246.64 −35.34 (−0.27%)

FTSE 100 (UK100) 7,270.51 +6.20 (+0.085%)

USD Index 106.77 −0.31 (−0.29%)

• – Australia Manufacturing PMI (m/m) at 02:00 (GMT+3);
• – Japan National Core Consumer Price Index at 02:30 (GMT+3);
• – UK Retail Sales (m/m) at 09:00 (GMT+3);
• – Eurozone France Manufacturing PMI (m/m) at 10:15 (GMT+3);
• – Eurozone France Services PMI (m/m) at 10:15 (GMT+3);
• – Eurozone German Manufacturing PMI (m/m) at 10:30 (GMT+3);
• – Eurozone German Services PMI (m/m) at 10:30 (GMT+3);
• – Eurozone Manufacturing PMI (m/m) at 11:00 (GMT+3);
• – Eurozone Services PMI (m/m) at 11:00 (GMT+3);
• – UK Manufacturing PMI (m/m) at 11:30 (GMT+3);
• – UK Services PMI (m/m) at 11:30 (GMT+3);
• – Canada Retail Sales (m/m) at 15:30 (GMT+3);
• – US Manufacturing PMI (m/m) at 16:45 (GMT+3);
• – US Services PMI (m/m) at 16:45 (GMT+3).

By JustForex

This article reflects a personal opinion and should not be interpreted as an investment advice, and/or offer, and/or a persistent request for carrying out financial transactions, and/or a guarantee, and/or a forecast of future events.