00:00Today we'll cover stories on melting ice sheets and heat's impact on the world's most famous cycling race.
00:07Brett, our first article from fizz.org about the Greenland ice sheets, a lot of ice in Greenland,
00:13a lot of water locked up in that ice and how they're melting very quickly and have increased the rate
00:18of melt over the last couple decades.
00:20Yeah, it's quite significant here.
00:21Extreme episodes of melting are becoming much more frequent and extensive and, again, much more intense across Greenland,
00:29which is bad news, obviously, for the world's oceans.
00:32Since 1990, the production of water from ice melt has increased six-fold.
00:37That is a significant increase.
00:39This study looked at the time period from 1950 to 2023, so a pretty long period of record.
00:44Yeah, seven of the top ten most extreme melting events have occurred since the year 2000, which is quite something.
00:51And it looked like there are certain parts of Greenland that are more impacted than others.
00:54Yeah, northern Greenland was the most impacted.
00:57But, again, that could expand farther south with time, so that's certainly a concern.
01:01And with more water being produced, we're seeing each successive extreme event producing even more and more water.
01:09So it's getting worse and worse.
01:11And this obviously has a significant impact.
01:12Sea level rise can accelerate because of the melting of the ice sheet, and that's water that's not currently in
01:17the ocean.
01:17And then, obviously, there could be some changes to the ocean circulations.
01:21We'll turn from melting ice sheets to heat.
01:23This story about the Tour de France from IS Global about global warming and how it's impacting heat stress on
01:30athletes, in this case, specifically France, Brett.
01:32Yeah, let's define what heat stress is, actually.
01:35Hot temperatures, of course.
01:36But you factor in relative humidity, wind, and sun.
01:39And so what we're finding is that there's an increased risk of heat stress during the race, especially over the
01:44past decade.
01:45This study looked at a pretty good time period as well.
01:48They looked at July, or all Julys, from 1974 to 2023 in 12 cities across France.
01:55And it was pretty clear trends.
01:56Yeah, clear trends.
01:57Heat stress is increasing steadily.
01:59The highest number of extreme risk episodes have occurred in the most recent decade.
02:04Again, not surprising.
02:06But the race has been very lucky.
02:08So why lucky?
02:09Lucky?
02:10Well, we've been lucky because when we've had these extreme heat episodes, the race has been in another location.
02:17Or the race was either a week later or a week earlier.
02:20So we've been lucky.
02:21Are there certain parts of France that seem to be most impacted by this increase in heat stress?
02:26Southwestern, southeastern France, out of the mountains.
02:28The mountains have been the least affected, obviously, due to elevation.
02:31What type of sort of adaptation plans need to be looked at here?
02:34Yeah, look, race organizers really need to look at scheduling.
02:37Especially maybe considering more mornings than afternoon.
02:40Yeah, before the heat of the day, obviously important.
02:42And maybe they even need to look at a different time of year, potentially, way down the road.
02:47This also applies to other sporting events, such as the Olympics, the World Cup, and certainly many others around the
02:53world.
02:53Thank you, Brett, for other stories about climate and information.
02:56You can find those at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
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