July was Earth's third-hottest on record, scientists say
Last month continued a trend of extreme climate conditions that scientists attribute to man-made global warming, even though there was a pause in record-breaking temperatures for the planet.
According to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the average global surface air temperature reached 16.68 C in July, which is 0.45 C above the 1991-2020 average for the month.
"Two years after the hottest July on record, the recent streak of global temperature records is over – for now," said Carlo Buontempo, Director of C3S. "But this doesn't mean climate change has stopped. We continued to witness the effects of a warming world in events such as extreme heat and catastrophic floods in July."
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The National
36 minutes ago
- The National
Apollo 13 captain who coined 'Houston, we have a problem' dies at age 97
Jim Lovell, the US astronaut who led the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission and helped guide its crew safely back to Earth after a mid-flight explosion, died at the age of 97 on Thursday. Mr Lovell was at the centre of one of Nasa 's most dramatic episodes when an oxygen tank on the spacecraft exploded on April 13, 1970, two days after launch. The mission was meant to be the third crewed landing on the Moon, but the explosion damaged its power and life-support systems. 'Houston, we've had a problem,' Mr Lovell told mission control in words that have since become part of space-flight history. The phrase was later popularised as 'Houston, we have a problem'. Tributes from space community Tributes to Mr Lovell came from Nasa, former astronauts and wider space community after his death was announced on Friday. Nasa acting administrator Sean Duffy said in a statement that the agency sent its condolences to the family of Mr Lovell, 'whose life and work inspired millions of people across the decade'. 'Jim's character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach the Moon and turned a potential tragedy into a success from which we learnt an enormous amount,' he said. 'We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements.' Dr Buzz Aldrin, the second person to work on the Moon, said that was he was 'grieving the loss of one of my best friends'. 'Our mutual respect had no limits. The Gemini XII mission we flew together paved the way for the Apollo missions. Heartfelt condolences to Jim's family. Farewell Jim. You will be missed, my friend. Godspeed,' he said. Impressive career After the explosion aboard the Apollo 13 mission, Mr Lovell and his crewmates, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, worked with engineers on the ground over the next four days to come up with solutions. They conserved power, repurposed spacecraft systems and navigated a complex return trajectory that brought them home to a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 17. The episode was later described by Nasa as a 'successful failure' because, while the original mission was lost, the crew's survival was more important. Mr Lovell's space career spanned four missions, including two to the Moon, though he landed on the surface. He was command module pilot of Apollo 8 in 1968, the first mission to orbit the Moon, giving humanity its first close-up views of the lunar surface and the famous Earthrise photograph taken by William Anders. Earlier, he flew on Gemini 7 and Gemini 12, pioneering the rendezvous, docking and spacewalking techniques that were essential in the Apollo programme. After retiring from Nasa and the US Navy in 1973, Mr Lovell co-wrote the memoir Lost Moon, which became the basis for the 1995 film Apollo 13. Actor Tom Hanks portrayed him on screen, and Mr Lovell made a cameo appearance in the film. Mr Lovell is survived by his four children. His wife, Marilyn, who he was married to for almost 70 years, died in 2023.
The National
17 hours ago
- The National
Sleep like a hamster, wake up on Mars: Why hibernation is the future of deep space missions
The idea of astronauts snoozing their way to Mars may sound like something straight out of a Hollywood sci-fi movie, but scientists are exploring whether it could one day become a reality. Researchers in Europe and the US are studying whether slowing a person's metabolism could put them into a state of hibernation that lasts days, or even several weeks. The concept, known as torpor or synthetic hibernation, would involve reducing the body's metabolic activity to minimal levels, including lowering the heart rate and body temperature. Researchers believe this could help reduce the resources needed during space travel, while also protecting crew members from radiation and the effects of microgravity. 'Every kilogram launched into space is expensive,' said Dr Alexander Chouker, an academic director and physician at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and who works closely with the European Space Agency. 'We could cut down the need for food, water, oxygen and even space if you hibernate.' The agency commissioned studies looking at how hibernation could work during a mission to Mars, including theoretical designs of hibernation pods. The idea is to place astronauts into torpor for most of the journey, allowing them to wake up as they near their destination. What is torpor and how does it work? Some animals can enter a state of torpor naturally. It allows them to conserve energy by lowering their metabolism in response to environmental challenges such as cold or a scarcity of food. Dr Vladyslav Vyazovskiy, a professor of sleep physiology at the University of Oxford, has worked on studies involving mice and said they can enter a state of torpor when there is a lack of food. 'They calculate how much energy they need and enter this low-energy state for a few hours a day,' he told The National. 'Hamsters do it kind of proactively. They create conditions which remind them of winter. 'For example, when I make their day short and night long, they switch to winter mode, where they start entering torpor every day. My animals enter torpor at room temperature. You don't need to make it cold. The metabolic slowdown comes first, then the body cools down.' Even though there has been extensive research on animals, scientists still do not how to enable humans to enter the same state. Dr Vyazovskiy said sleep was one of the most important factors, but it is still not clear what kind of effect hibernation would have on a human brain. 'An important barrier is the dramatic change in physiology, in how the body and organism functions, and we need to be really sure that we do not produce a state which will affect the brain or the body negatively,' he said. 'I'm actually surprised that there is so much interest in introducing the state of torpor or hibernation, but nobody cares what the state does to you, so I think it's really important. 'And this is what I studied in my lab – what torpor does to the brain. Does the animal still have memories? Does the brain function is preserved before we can safely apply this to primates or humans?' Medical potential on Earth Dr Chouker said that more investment was needed to boost research and the development of technology that could help humans achieve a state of hibernation. He said it would revolutionise health care on Earth, with any benefits to space travel 'the cherry on the cake'. 'It will change medicine because you can control metabolism, including of a human who's waiting for a specific therapy that needs time," he added. "We could avoid any kind of intensive care or reduce intensive care degeneration and deconditioning effects.' Could humans hibernate? Dr Dominique Moser, a biologist also at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, said humans may one have had the ability to enter a state of torpor. 'There is some evidence from human history that showed capacity of going into torpor state,' she said. 'There were some bone findings in a cave in Atapuerca [in northern Spain] half a million years ago that showed signs of performing hibernation.' She said that theory was supported by genetic research that suggests hibernation is not controlled by a single gene, but a complex set of gene expressions triggered under specific environmental conditions. 'It might be that there's some kind of genetic programme that is encoded in plenty of animals, irrespective of species and phylogenetic relationships," Dr Moser said. 'This programme could be encoded in a huge set of mammals such as bears, hedgehogs, apes and even rodents, so why not humans?' Developing hibernation pods US company SpaceWorks Enterprises researches human hibernation for the purposes of space travel. It received grants from Nasa in 2013 and 2017 to develop a concept for a hibernation habitat for Mars missions. Dr John Bradford, chief executive of the company, told The National that it put together a medical team at the time to carry out the study, including researchers from the Mayo Clinic, animal hibernation experts and an astronaut. He said their findings showed it was possible to develop the sort of hibernation technology typically seen in movies. "It [hibernation] is kind of artificially induced, a low metabolic state, and it involves manipulating the thermal regulatory system of your body," he said. Among the challenges is finding the right drug combination to temporarily lower the body's thermal set point of 37°C by about 5°C or 10°C. "That's one of the challenges ... is finding the drugs that can override your body's tendency to basically always keep itself warm and active there, so that you spend a lot of energy doing that," Dr Bradford said. But even when such medicine and technology is invented, Mr Bradford said there would have to be many human experiments before it can be considered reliable for deep space missions, including tests on the ground and in Earth's orbit. Astronaut hibernation The process of inducing human torpor would probably involve several stages – preparation, induction, maintenance and reawakening. Bears, for example, take three to four weeks to fully enter hibernation, suggesting it is a gradual biological process. 'You'd need to get the body ready, perhaps through a combination of environmental cues and pharmacological support,' Dr Chouker said. 'The induction might involve drugs, while the maintenance phase could be supported by automated technology regulating temperature and humidity.' Light, noise, temperature changes or medication could be used to bring people back out of that state. Missions to Mars Space agencies are working towards sending humans back to the Moon, and eventually to the surface of Mars. Missions to the Red Planet would take seven to 10 months and studies are continuing on how extended deep space missions would affect human psychology and physiology. SpaceX is developing its Starship rocket, with the aim of sending crewed missions to Mars, or even deeper into space. Placing astronauts into state of hibernation could help them cope with the challenges of long space missions.
The National
a day ago
- The National
France's huge wildfire to burn for days after scorching area size of Paris
France's biggest wildfire in decades will burn for several more days, authorities said on Friday, even though it has been brought under control. About 2,000 firefighters in the south of the country are continuing to battle a blaze that has scorched more than 17,000 hectares of land – an area bigger than Paris. It has killed one person, injured 13 and destroyed dozens of homes. Although the fire was declared to be under control on Thursday night, authorities said it would not be declared extinguished for several days. Access to the forests devastated by the fire has been banned until at least Sunday. Authorities said roads in the area are too dangerous because of fallen electricity lines and other hazards. About 2,000 people who were forced to flee have not been allowed back to their homes. Hundreds of people are sleeping in school gyms and village halls across the region. At its most intense, the flames were going through about 1,000 hectares of land per hour, according to authorities in the nearby city of Narbonne. Two days of strong and changing winds made the blaze difficult to predict. A 65-year-old woman, who had refused to evacuate, was found dead in her scorched house, while 13 people were injured, 11 of them firefighters. 'Unprecedented catastrophe' The wildfire is a 'catastrophe on an unprecedented scale', Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said during a visit to the affected region on Wednesday. 'What is happening is linked to global warming and linked to drought,' Mr Bayrou said. Environment Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said the fire was the biggest France had experienced since 1949. 'This is a wildfire that is a consequence of climate change, of drought in this region,' she told France Info radio. The country has already seen around 9,000 wildfires this summer, mainly close to its Mediterranean coast. The Aude district in particular has suffered in recent years, aggravated by low rainfall and the uprooting of vineyards, which used to help slow down the advance of fires. Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse has been the village hardest hit by the fire. With Europe facing new August heatwaves, many areas are on alert for wildfires. Portugal has extended emergency measures because of the heightened risk. Near the Spanish town of Tarifa, fire crews secured areas near hotels and other tourist accommodations after controlling a major blaze that also destroyed hundreds of hectares. Antonio Sanz, interior minister for Andalusia's regional government, said that 'the return of all evacuated people' had been authorised after the fire was 'stabilised'. Spanish broadcaster TVE reported that the fire started in a camper van at a beach campsite, and spread quickly in strong winds. About 1,550 people and 5,500 vehicles were evacuated from camps, hotels and homes, Mr Sanz said. Spain is experiencing a heatwave, with temperatures nearing 40C in many regions. Officials reported 1,060 excess deaths in July that could be attributed to intense heat. Climate experts say global warming is driving longer, more intense and more frequent heatwaves around the world, making for more favourable forest fire conditions.
