The harmful effects of global warming are being felt "here and now and in your backyard," a groundbreaking US government report on climate change has warned.
"Climate change is happening now, it is not something that will happen decades or centuries in the future," Jerry Melillo of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, one of the lead authors of the report.
Climate change, which the report blames largely on human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases, "is under way in the United States and projected to grow," said the report by the US Global Change Research Program, a grouping of a dozen government agencies and the White House.
The report is the first on climate change since President Barack Obama took office and outlines in plain, non-scientific terms how global warming has resulted in an increase of extreme weather such as the powerful heatwave that swept Europe in 2003, claiming tens of thousands of lives.
Hurricanes have become fiercer as they gather greater strength over oceans warmed by climate change.
Global warming impacts everything from water supplies to energy, farming to health. And those impacts are expected to increase, according to the report titled "Global Change Impacts in the United States."
Temperatures may go up by 3 degrees celcius in Malaysia with El Nino phenomenon.
Brace yourself for hotter days. The El Nino phenomenon is coming.
And with warmer weather, the Government warns that the haze will worsen.
However, its full effect can only be gauged sometime in August," said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas.
El Nino is a climatic condition where abnormal warming of the Pacific Ocean causes dry weather in South-East Asia and northern Australia.
Uggah was speaking to reporters after launching the Genting Goes Green programme at First World Plaza, Genting Highlands Resort yesterday.
Malaysia experiences a hot and dry season in June, July and August with temperatures ranging between 33°C to 34°C. However, with the El Nino phenomenon, temperatures can rise by an additional 3°C.
Uggah said with such hot and dry conditions, any open burning activity could make things worse. He said the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre satellite report had identified 125 hot spots in the country from May 25 to June 7.
Uggah said the Air Pollution Index for various locations in the country had deteriorated slightly.
"This has caused it to be slightly hazy. The hazy situation happened because of a stable atmosphere with a high humidity level of above 85%.
"This causes pollutants like dust and emissions from vehicles and factories to be collected in the air, causing poor visibility," he said.
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