Super Typhoon Ragasa and Storm Bualoi strike Asia

Climate Focus

By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello,

Today's newsletter focuses on the world's most powerful tropical cyclone this year, Typhoon Ragasa, which barrelled towards tens of millions of people in southern China. It killed at least 15 people in Taiwan and left scores missing and lashed Hong Kong with ferocious winds and heavy rains.

Fuelled by warm seas and favourable atmospheric conditions, the tropical cyclone rapidly intensified to become a Category 5 super typhoon on Monday with winds exceeding 260 kph (162 mph).

Residents in a mud-clogged Taiwan town faced water shortages even as cleanup efforts continued in the east coastal county of Hualien. 

Click here for the Reuters video interview with Johnny Chan, an atmospheric scientist at the Asia-Pacific Typhoon Collaborative Research Center, who predicts more super typhoons in Asia.

Many also went missing after a barrier lake overflowed and sent a wall of water into a town in Hualien, the Taiwan fire department said.

Barrier lakes are formed when rocks, landslides or other natural blockages make a dam across a river, normally in a valley, blocking and holding back water, hindering or even stopping natural drainage.

A Reuters analysis of satellite imagery by Planet Labs shows that the lake first started forming sometime between July 17 and July 25. The surface area of the lake increased by about five times between July 25 and mid-September.

The water hit like a "tsunami", said Guangfu postman Hsieh Chien-tung, who was able to flee to the second floor of the post office just in time. Later, he got home to find his car had been swept into the living room.

Click here for the full Reuters graphics feature on the typhoon.

Meanwhile, devastation has also struck the Philippines after Tropical Storm Bualoi killed at least three people late on Thursday. The storm swept across central islands and southern Luzon, days after the super typhoon struck the north.

Elsewhere, speakers at Climate Week NYC urged the world to turn promises into practical solutions.

The premier of Antigua and Barbuda pushed wealthy counterparts to speed their efforts, with climate change having become an existential crisis for nations like his.

"For small islands, it turns every storm into a fiscal catastrophe," Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said.

This week, at least 12 people died after heavy rain lashed the eastern Indian city of Kolkata and its surrounding areas, the regional head of India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The rain, as much as 251.6 mm (9.9 inches) in 24 hours, was the heaviest witnessed in the city since 1988, said HR Biswas, in Kolkata. Police said nine people died in the city, with most of the deaths due to electrocution. Two people drowned, they added.

Roads were submerged under waist-deep water in some areas, stranding vehicles and forcing commuters to wade through flooded streets.

People wade through a waterlogged street after heavy rainfall in Kolkata, India. REUTERS/Sahiba Chawdhary

Artisanal gold mining in Ghana has driven mercury contamination to dangerous levels in host communities, according to a report by the New York-based environmental group Pure Earth and Ghana's Environmental Protection Authority. The study – based on a year of samples taken from soil, water, crops and fish in six of Ghana's 13 mining regions – showed that some areas were reaching 134 times the amount deemed to be safe.

Click here for the Reuters report on the study.

A Greek firefighters investigators' report, seen by Reuters, said the cable near the town of Keratea showed signs of oxidation and improper maintenance that may have sparked the deadly wildfire near the Athens Riviera in August. Within hours, the blaze had killed one person and burned 4,000 acres (16 square km) of land abutting tourist beaches south of the capital.

Faulty power lines in Greece were the leading cause of major wildfires this summer, overshadowing arson and negligence, preliminary fire brigade data seen exclusively by Reuters shows.

Speaking on the "Climate Frontlines" show live from Times Square during New York Climate Week, California Attorney General Rob Bonta told Reuters his state would continue to sue the Trump administration's aggressive deregulatory actions on environmental rules.

"Each and every time they violate the law, they hurt my state, my people, we will sue them, we will take them to court," said Bonta. California's broader strategy is to counter the administration's push to expand fossil fuels and its sidelining of climate science that underpins its rapid-fire environmental policy rollbacks.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump expects most of the nation's coal-fired power plants to delay retirement to help deliver the vast amount of electricity needed to fuel artificial intelligence, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at a Reuters Newsmaker event.

The government had been in discussions with many utilities nationwide and expects the majority of the several dozen U.S. coal plants nearing retirement to delay closure, he said.

At least there was an upside to Britain recording its hottest summer this year, as apple growers have been left with a glut of sweet apples which are ideal for making cider. Not a bad problem to have.

Click here to watch the interview with a British apple farmer in Showerings Orchard.

Today's Climate Lens takes a look at power generated and imported to supply Thailand's over 70 million people which fell 5.4% annually in the seven months through July, official data showed. That's nearly twice as steep as the 2.8% slump in January-July 2020 due to coronavirus-linked lockdowns.

An annual decline in output would be only the fourth in the nearly four decades for which official data is available, as fewer days of extreme heat due to frequent rainfall slashed air conditioning use.

Is the decline in honey production expected in the port city of Basra, Iraq, this season, as the salinity of water in Shatt al-Arab rises, along with extreme heat and persistent droughts that have disturbed the bees' delicate ecosystem. Click here for the full Reuters report and video.

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