Weather and climate: understanding risks and preparing for variability and extremes
Weather and Climate – Understanding Risks and Preparing for variability and extremes” is the theme of WMO’s latest Bulletin. Articles include: Activities for Early Career Scientists at the World Weather Open Science Conference, held in Montreal in August. International Migration in a Globalizing World: The Role of Youth, published by the UN Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), shows that youth and young adults are the most mobile group among all ages. Most migration is toward urban centres where air quality may be especially detrimental as emissions are concentrated and the urban heat island effect can amplify pollution levels. Observing the Global Atmosphere by Instrumented Passenger Aircraft – The Story of IAGOS explains how some air quality data is acquired. This issue of the Bulletin contains three pictographic stories. The first two illustrate the UN Climate Summit in New York and the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) initiative to support the Maasai Community in Tanzania. The third is on the WMO participation in the UN Small Island Developing States 2014 Conference in Samoa. Economic losses related to geophysical, meteorological, hydrological and climatological events have risen three to fourfold in the United States of America over the past 30 years. The 19th session of the Conference of Parties (November 2013) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change established the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts.