It's Climate Change I tell'ya!! IT'S CLIMATE CHANGE!!
- Thread starter B00Mer
- Start date
Yup. Today it's Rusyn (roo seen) sometimes Ruthenian aka "The Knights Who Say Ni!"
Rusyn, also known as Ruthenian, refers to an East Slavic ethnic group and their language, primarily found in the Carpathian Mountains region. They are also referred to as Carpatho-Rusyns, Carpatho-Russians, or Rusnaks. The Rusyn language is considered either a distinct language or a dialect of Ukrainian. Rusyns are known for their unique cultural identity, including their Eastern Christian traditions.
Key aspects of Rusyn identity:
- Geographic Location:
Rusyns primarily inhabit the Carpathian region, including parts of western Ukraine, eastern Slovakia, and south-eastern Poland. - Language:
The Rusyn language is an East Slavic language, with various dialects spoken across the Carpathian region. It is sometimes classified as a separate language and sometimes as a dialect of Ukrainian. - Religion:
The majority of Rusyns are Eastern Catholics, though a minority practice Eastern Orthodoxy. - Cultural Identity:
Rusyns maintain a distinct cultural identity, with traditions and customs rooted in their Carpathian homeland. - Historical Context:
Rusyn history is intertwined with the broader East Slavic history of Kievan Rus and later states like the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. - Modern Identity:
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Rusyn intellectuals began to solidify their ethnonym and identity, particularly with the rise of national awakening movements. - Variations:
There are regional variations within the Rusyn community, such as the Lemkos, who live on the northern slopes of the Carpathians.
- Geographic Location:
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Arson is the new hobby for environmentalists.Canada’s 2025 wildfire season now second-worst on record, fuelled by Prairies blazes
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Jordan Omstead
Published Aug 08, 2025 • 1 minute read
TORONTO — Canada’s 2025 wildfire season is now the second-worst on record.
The latest figures posted by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre suggest fires have torn through 72,000 square kilometres, an area roughly the size of New Brunswick.
That surpasses the next-worst season in 1989 and is about half the area burned during the record-setting 2023 season, according to a federal database of wildfire seasons dating back to 1972.
This season has strained firefighting resources, displaced thousands of people and stifled communities across Canada in wildfire smoke, with Saskatchewan and Manitoba seeing the most area burned.
Canada has been at its highest wildfire preparedness level since late May, with around 1,400 international firefighters called in to help so far this year.
Scientists have warned climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, is making fire seasons longer and more intense.
Canada’s 2025 wildfire season now second-worst on record, fuelled by Prairies blazes
Canada's 2025 wildfire season is now the second-worst on record.torontosun.com
Italy's Mount Vesuvius closed to tourists as wildfire rages
Author of the article:AFP
AFP
Published Aug 10, 2025 • 1 minute read
A wildfire has forced the closure of hiking paths on Mount Vesuvius, pictured here in 2024
A wildfire has forced the closure of hiking paths on Mount Vesuvius, pictured here in 2024 Photo by Tiziana FABI /AFP
Rome (AFP) — Italian firefighters on Sunday tackled a wildfire on the flanks of Mount Vesuvius, with all hiking routes up the volcano near Naples closed to tourists.
The national fire service said it had 12 teams on the ground and six Canadair planes fighting the blaze, which has torn through the national park in southern Italy since Friday.
Reinforcement firefighters were on their way from other regions and the onsite teams were using drones to better monitor the spread of the fire, the service said on Telegram.
“For safety reasons and… to facilitate firefighting and cleanup operations in the affected areas, all activities along the Vesuvius National Park trail network are suspended until further notice,” the park said in a statement Saturday.
Nearly 620,000 people visited the volcano’s crater in 2024, according to the park.
The smoke from the fire could be seen from the Pompeii archeological site, which however remained open to tourists.
Experts say European countries are becoming ever more vulnerable to wildfires due to intensifying summer heatwaves linked to global warming.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:AFP
AFP
Published Aug 10, 2025 • 1 minute read
A wildfire has forced the closure of hiking paths on Mount Vesuvius, pictured here in 2024
A wildfire has forced the closure of hiking paths on Mount Vesuvius, pictured here in 2024 Photo by Tiziana FABI /AFP
Rome (AFP) — Italian firefighters on Sunday tackled a wildfire on the flanks of Mount Vesuvius, with all hiking routes up the volcano near Naples closed to tourists.
The national fire service said it had 12 teams on the ground and six Canadair planes fighting the blaze, which has torn through the national park in southern Italy since Friday.
Reinforcement firefighters were on their way from other regions and the onsite teams were using drones to better monitor the spread of the fire, the service said on Telegram.
“For safety reasons and… to facilitate firefighting and cleanup operations in the affected areas, all activities along the Vesuvius National Park trail network are suspended until further notice,” the park said in a statement Saturday.
Nearly 620,000 people visited the volcano’s crater in 2024, according to the park.
The smoke from the fire could be seen from the Pompeii archeological site, which however remained open to tourists.
Experts say European countries are becoming ever more vulnerable to wildfires due to intensifying summer heatwaves linked to global warming.
Italy's Mount Vesuvius closed to tourists as wildfire rages
Italian firefighters on Sunday tackled a wildfire on the flanks of Mount Vesuvius.
How to measure dangerous heat
The condition kills more people than hurricanes, floods or any other climate-related extreme
Author of the article:AFP
AFP
Nick Perry
Published Aug 12, 2025 • Last updated 17 hours ago • 3 minute read
Heat kills more people than hurricanes, floods or any other climate-related extreme.
Heat kills more people than hurricanes, floods or any other climate-related extreme.
PARIS — As Europe and North America endure yet another wave of sweltering heat and out-of-control wildfires this summer, experts are sounding the alarm over heat stress.
The condition kills more people than hurricanes, floods or any other climate-related extreme, but what is heat stress exactly, and how is it measured?
‘Silent killer’
Heat stress occurs when the body’s natural cooling systems are overwhelmed, causing symptoms ranging from dizziness and headaches to organ failure and death.
It is brought on by prolonged exposure to heat and other environmental factors that work together to undermine the body’s internal thermostat and its ability to regulate temperature.
“Heat is a silent killer, because symptoms are not so easily evident. And when these underlying conditions are present, the consequences can be very bad, and even catastrophic,” said Alejandro Saez Reale of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Infants, the elderly, people with health problems and outdoor workers are particularly vulnerable. City dwellers surrounded by concrete, brick and other heat-absorbing surfaces also face an elevated risk.
The WMO estimates that heat kills around half a million people a year but says that the true toll is not known, and could be 30 times higher than is currently recorded.
As climate change makes heatwaves longer, stronger and more frequent, people across the planet will be increasingly exposed to conditions that test the limits of human endurance.
More than a maximum
Temperature might be the most widely used and easily understood weather reading, but headline-catching “maximum highs” do not fully tell how heat might affect the human body.
For example, 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) feels very different in the dry heat of the desert compared to the humid climes of a jungle.
To build a more complete picture, scientists consider a host of factors including temperature but also humidity, wind speed, clothing, direct sunshine, and even the amounts of concrete or greenery in the area.
All these play a big role in how the body perceives and, most importantly, responds to extreme heat.
There are many ways to measure heat stress, some of which are decades old, but all try to boil down different environmental readings into a single number or graph.
‘Feels like’
One of the oldest methods is known as wet-bulb temperature, a useful gauge in situations where the thermometer reading may not seem too extreme but when combined with humidity becomes unbearable, even lethal.
Just six hours exposed to 35 degrees Celsius with 100 percent humidity is enough to kill a healthy person, scientists said in 2023.
Above this limit, sweat cannot evaporate off the skin, and the body overheats and expires.
Copernicus, the EU’s climate monitor, uses the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), which considers temperature and humidity but also wind, sunshine and radiated heat to rank heat stress levels from moderate to extreme.
Extreme heat stress, as judged by this index, is a “feels like” temperature of 46 Celsius and above, at which point it is necessary to take action to avoid health risks.
The Heat Index, used by the US National Weather Service, offers an “apparent temperature” based on heat and humidity in the shade, and a colour-coded graph denoting the likelihood of illness from exposure.
Canada has developed the Humidex rating, which combines heat and humidity into one number to reflect the “perceived temperature” and presents the associated risk in a four-step “guide to summer comfort” chart.
Limitations
Other examples of “thermal stress” indices include the Tropical Summer Index, Predicted Heat Strain and the mean radiant temperature.
They are not without limitations, and heatwave expert John Nairn said that some measures worked better in some climates than others.
“It’s not the same all around the world, about the way you approach it,” Nairn told AFP.
The UTCI, for example, is excellent at reading heat stress in Germany, where it was first developed, but “a very poor measure” in global south countries, he said.
“It saturates and over-measures far too much. And it would over-alert for those communities who are chronically exposed to heat,” said Nairn, who has advised governments and the WMO on heatwave policy.
These locations might receive better heat stress readings using wet-bulb temperature, he said.
These indices also do not consider the impact of heat beyond health, he said, even though a heatwave could strand trains or overload air-conditioners.
“If your heat challenge is such that it gets to a level where your infrastructure is not going to operate, and it starts failing, that will have a return on humans no longer being protected,” Nairn said.
torontosun.com
The condition kills more people than hurricanes, floods or any other climate-related extreme
Author of the article:AFP
AFP
Nick Perry
Published Aug 12, 2025 • Last updated 17 hours ago • 3 minute read
Heat kills more people than hurricanes, floods or any other climate-related extreme.
Heat kills more people than hurricanes, floods or any other climate-related extreme.
PARIS — As Europe and North America endure yet another wave of sweltering heat and out-of-control wildfires this summer, experts are sounding the alarm over heat stress.
The condition kills more people than hurricanes, floods or any other climate-related extreme, but what is heat stress exactly, and how is it measured?
‘Silent killer’
Heat stress occurs when the body’s natural cooling systems are overwhelmed, causing symptoms ranging from dizziness and headaches to organ failure and death.
It is brought on by prolonged exposure to heat and other environmental factors that work together to undermine the body’s internal thermostat and its ability to regulate temperature.
“Heat is a silent killer, because symptoms are not so easily evident. And when these underlying conditions are present, the consequences can be very bad, and even catastrophic,” said Alejandro Saez Reale of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Infants, the elderly, people with health problems and outdoor workers are particularly vulnerable. City dwellers surrounded by concrete, brick and other heat-absorbing surfaces also face an elevated risk.
The WMO estimates that heat kills around half a million people a year but says that the true toll is not known, and could be 30 times higher than is currently recorded.
As climate change makes heatwaves longer, stronger and more frequent, people across the planet will be increasingly exposed to conditions that test the limits of human endurance.
More than a maximum
Temperature might be the most widely used and easily understood weather reading, but headline-catching “maximum highs” do not fully tell how heat might affect the human body.
For example, 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) feels very different in the dry heat of the desert compared to the humid climes of a jungle.
To build a more complete picture, scientists consider a host of factors including temperature but also humidity, wind speed, clothing, direct sunshine, and even the amounts of concrete or greenery in the area.
All these play a big role in how the body perceives and, most importantly, responds to extreme heat.
There are many ways to measure heat stress, some of which are decades old, but all try to boil down different environmental readings into a single number or graph.
‘Feels like’
One of the oldest methods is known as wet-bulb temperature, a useful gauge in situations where the thermometer reading may not seem too extreme but when combined with humidity becomes unbearable, even lethal.
Just six hours exposed to 35 degrees Celsius with 100 percent humidity is enough to kill a healthy person, scientists said in 2023.
Above this limit, sweat cannot evaporate off the skin, and the body overheats and expires.
Copernicus, the EU’s climate monitor, uses the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), which considers temperature and humidity but also wind, sunshine and radiated heat to rank heat stress levels from moderate to extreme.
Extreme heat stress, as judged by this index, is a “feels like” temperature of 46 Celsius and above, at which point it is necessary to take action to avoid health risks.
The Heat Index, used by the US National Weather Service, offers an “apparent temperature” based on heat and humidity in the shade, and a colour-coded graph denoting the likelihood of illness from exposure.
Canada has developed the Humidex rating, which combines heat and humidity into one number to reflect the “perceived temperature” and presents the associated risk in a four-step “guide to summer comfort” chart.
Limitations
Other examples of “thermal stress” indices include the Tropical Summer Index, Predicted Heat Strain and the mean radiant temperature.
They are not without limitations, and heatwave expert John Nairn said that some measures worked better in some climates than others.
“It’s not the same all around the world, about the way you approach it,” Nairn told AFP.
The UTCI, for example, is excellent at reading heat stress in Germany, where it was first developed, but “a very poor measure” in global south countries, he said.
“It saturates and over-measures far too much. And it would over-alert for those communities who are chronically exposed to heat,” said Nairn, who has advised governments and the WMO on heatwave policy.
These locations might receive better heat stress readings using wet-bulb temperature, he said.
These indices also do not consider the impact of heat beyond health, he said, even though a heatwave could strand trains or overload air-conditioners.
“If your heat challenge is such that it gets to a level where your infrastructure is not going to operate, and it starts failing, that will have a return on humans no longer being protected,” Nairn said.
STRESSED OUT: How to measure dangerous heat
The condition kills more people than hurricanes, floods or any other climate-related extreme, but what is heat stress exactly