Extreme Weather, Ukrainian Nuclear Power, Maui Unemployment
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Daniel, have you going one more day?

I know I really struggle sleeping. I don't know how i'm here.

If you're onna get the whole weekend.

I know i'm excited. What are your plans this weekend? Anything good?

Sit around and do not much.

That's my plan. We're so similar. From desert downpours to meditation, ian fires a summer of weather extremes.

Is this the new Normal?

The laws aren't as low as they used to be in the higher higher used to be.

And that will continue for did IT with aniela's on. And this is a first from N. P. R. news. Ukraine trying to do something no other country has continue Operating nuclear power plants with russian artillery tacks nearby. How long can I continue to Operate amid a war at home?

And a month after a deadly fire destroyed behind the hawaii sights are desperate for work.

I, to make money. I'm making phone calls applying online. But no, no, nobody.

So stay with us. We've got the news. You need to start your day.

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It's been a summer of extremes. Dozens recently died in brazil when a cyclone e dropped more than eleven inches of rain in twenty four hours.

And greece has been dealing with severe flooding, deadly wildfires in the nevada desert. People got stuck in the mud at the burning man festival when torrential rains soaked the drier state in america, and much of the world has been baking in intense heat.

What is going on? Michael copy joins us from N. P. R. Climate desk. Good morning.

more.

Let's go with the heat. This summer felt hotter than usual as true.

We're right. IT has been different. This summer was the hottest stone record with heat waves in places like the U. S. Europe, in japan. So what we're seeing is that heat waves are happening more and more frequently and the hot days are getting harder.

And as mainly because we heat burning fossil fuels, which releases Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, trapping heat close to the earth. But what's also happening right now is something called melanin. O is a natural weather pattern that happens periodical, and it's pushing up lobby temperatures. So that's amplifying the warming they were getting from climate change.

okay. And does that warming have any connection to the extreme rainfall that we've been seeing in brazil and greece in other places?

So what we know is that warmer air holds more moisture, and warmer water acts like fuel for hurricanes. So what we're seeing right now, brazil, for example, where a cyclone is cost severe flooding is the kind of extreme event that we can expect to happen more often as the planet guitar. According the Andrew weaver, he's a professor of earth and ocean sciences at the university Victoria.

This year, what we see is remarkable ocean temperatures worldwide, and what we're seeing them is a direct consequence of that .

more energy being fat. S state officials say flooding is going to be become more common there in the future, and that's because they're going to be more intense storms because hotter temperature will mean less snow and more rain.

Okay, that's interesting. I hadn't connected the dots before. So hot air causes more rain.

Hot air also hits oceans and fuels. Hrc anes is IT. Is this a new Normal?

When I spoke to professor weaver, what he says is we're not necessarily going to continue seeing record breaking heat year after year, but there's every reason to believe we will keep breaking records in the future, especially during years with an Ellen IO weather pattern.

What you're seeing, and you can see that in all the records globally, is that the lows aren't as low as they used to be in the highs or higher than used to be. And that will continue .

for scientists say this pattern of extreme weather is gna continue until we stop emitting Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

okay. Now this is a hypothetical question because um we're nowhere near close to actually stopping Greenhouse gas emissions. But let's say we stop them tomorrow. Would that stop this extreme weather?

The reality is that carbon oxy hangs around the atmosphere for a long time like hundreds of years. So we're going to be living with the consequences of the emissions we've already put in to the atmosphere. There's a leg alone, but there's a much bigger problem.

Humans keep putting more Greenhouse gases up. There were leaders already agreed we need to keep warming below one point five degrees. Sales is from preindustrial levels.

That's about two point seven degrees are in height. If we can keep to that goal, IT would stave off some of the most dire consequences. But the reality is one on track to exceed that, mark. So the first thing to do is to start .

cutting emissions. Alright, pr Michael, copy. Thank you so much. thank.

Ukraine is trying to do something no nation has ever attempted.

It's Operating a nuclear power industry in the middle of a war. The nuclear power planet in sesia has already been caught up in the fighting. At least nine other soviet error reactors are Operating in parts of the country where drone and missile .

strikes are common. So let's understand the risks with N. P. S. Brian man and kev, who visited a nuclear power plant last week. Good morning brian.

Good morning, Daniel.

What does that a nuclear reactor look like in war time?

But that looks like most civilian atomic power plants. So when I visited was in alex I in western ukraine. It's a huge, brightly painted complex of buildings, which means it's a pretty visible target. I spoke about this with Edwin lemon. He's an american physicists to heads the nuclear power safety program for the union of concerned scientists.

These plants were not designed to be harden against military attack. And even though there is some capability to protect their space from missiles and drones, it's not perfect. And Daniel.

they're already been reports of drone and missile strikes really close to these plants. And last year, russian air attacks briefly knocked out the offset power supply that needed to Operate all these plants safely.

Brian, hasn't nuclear facility ever been attacked anywhere in the world? You know.

during previous conflicts, mainly in the middle of nuclear facilities, have occasionally come under attack. During the iran iraq war in the thousand nine hundred and eighties, for example, iran attacked a nuclear facility in iraq. Those incidents generally involved complexes that were under construction or unfun and non Operational. Or in some other cases, the targeted reactors involved military research or weapons development. What's different here is that ukraine is Operating a civilian atomic power network, the first ever in this kind of sustained wardway threat.

So can the ukrainians run these plans safely when russian missiles are falling?

Well, they say they have no choice. These atomic reactors provide about half of ukraine's electricity, and so officials here say they're scrambling to improve air d defenses around these plants. During my visit, I interviewed petrol cochin, whose head of ukraine ine's national nuclear power utility.

The constantly increase the protection of nuclear power. This is a task for military and special anted own equipment.

but cooking acknowledged there is a real danger here. His engineers and technicians are trying to do something that's never been tried before. And he pointed specifically to his technicians working at zapora, who faced the greatest stress. That plant is still occupied by russian soldiers. And coaching told me he worries that a food khama like disaster could happen there.

Okay, well, that's scary. Ah what what makes this average plant so vulnerable?

Yes, some of the feces combat right now is happening ingy, about fifty miles away from that nuclear power plant, the largest in europe, and officials with the international atomic energy agency see have inspectors on site. But last week, the I A E A issued a statement warning that russian troops are refusing to let their team inspect key parts of the complex.

They want to see whether minds or other military explosives have been placed in sensitive areas. The ie. Also reported that an attack drone hit a residential building close to the separatist reactor last month.

So that's clearly the most vulnerable harvest situation. But, you know, is this war drags on? Experts I interview said the nine other reactors Operating across ukraine, they're also really vulnerable.

okay. M, P, S, brand man. And k, thank you. Thank you.

After a wild fire last month destroyed the town of la ha haw I, activists and celebrities went on social media and told tourists to stay away from the island of mari.

And people have. But now mali is facing an crisis, and lots of people are losing jobs.

npr. s. Adrian florida has been reporting in mari, good morning, Adrian.

Good morning. And so it's been .

exactly a month since the fire, which killed at least one hundred and fifteen people. Hundreds of people are still tragically unaccounted for. But tell us about this other crisis that's unfolding now.

Yeah, it's an unemployment crisis and not just in the town of the ha, where the fire was. All of mali has seen this huge drop in tourism. Restaurants and hotels are pretty much empty, and so workers everywhere have been getting laid off or having their hours slashed.

I spoke with a woman from the hinton who lost her home and everything he owned in the fire, and who also lost her job at a restaurant in the center of town. The restaurant didn't burn, but IT is surrounded by destruction, and so IT won't soon reopen this woman yet. Yet, allah has been looking for a work anywhere on the island.

I told my friend. Like, if you know someone who needs a housekeep i'm up for, like, I need, I need to make money. I'm making phone calls applying online. But no, no, nobody.

Well, how widespread is unemployment?

What to put into perspective? Annual, the week before the fire, one hundred thirty people are unmalleable iled unemployment claims. The full week after the five, forty, five hundred people did, and thousands more have failed run opponent since then.

Oh my goodness. So that is a start contrast. And so how have residents been surviving if they can find work?

Well, yai olier, who we just heard from a friends, have been helping, horrified, one off gigs, cleaning houses, a few hours of work here and there. I spoke with a worker at one resort hotel who said that he had not seen his hotel as empty as IT is. Since the pandemic, some of his co workers have been let go, and the rest are all giving up shifts. A lot of workers on mali and business owners suspect that jobs are not going to return until male's tourists start to return.

He has just devastating to imagine, you know, this iconic slice of paradise like mary, just empty of visitors. I saw this recent picture of a beach that just usually packed with tourists swimming with sea turtles. And the beach was completely empty. When is tourism going to bounce back?

Yeah that that is the big question on on everyone's minds, Daniel, the activists and celebrities you know who sent out that message of the fire that tourists should avoid how we did not anticipate that an economic fallout of this scale would come of that business leaders and workers are trying to get the message out that they want to respect. Now others are saying, work, this is the risk of having an economy is so dependent on tourism. And then there are others who are, you know, working to expand people's employment options. I spoke with a khani pila as he worked with the council for native hai an advancement, and has been working to train people on mali for the kinds of jobs that are going to be needed to rebuild behind a has mat, clean up construction bigg drivers.

But we want to provide is the ability to actively participate in the recovery efforts and help rebuild their own communities. Instead of having to go out of state to bring people in to do jobs.

Then you no one has any illusion that this is an immediate solution to my these problems right now, that the jobs will return to the island when tourists do. But how long it's going to take for that to happen, whether that's weeks or months, that is really hard to say.

Npr Adrian fu redev h has been reporting on mary. Thank you, aden.

再 进来？

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