So Donald, What Was the Climate (Change) Like in Singapore?
Trump tends not to get out much to any coastal regions that he doesn’t own. Singapore is an island, and it is time-wise on the opposite side of the earth, and on the equator. We don’t expect anybody to tell him anything about climate change there, since his hearing turns off when that is mentioned. Besides that, Trump is working on Bad-a-Booms there. So I thought that I would summarize what they are facing in climate change, to lower the current tenseness about Bad-a-Booms.
Since Singapore is on the equator, it is out of the bands for typhoons. They did have their first cyclone there in 2001, Typhoon Vamei, which caused major flooding.
From 1972 to 2014, the annual mean temperature increased by 1.1 degrees C, or 2.0 degrees F, to 82 degrees F, so it really matters.
They use the IPCC temperature range predictions of an increase of 1.4 degrees C to 4.6 degrees C by the end of the century. That is an increase of 2.5 degrees F to 8.3 degrees F.
Sea level increased from 1.2 mm to 1.7 mm per year. Estimating an average of 1.45 mm per year from 1975 to 2009, or 34 years, would give 49 mm or 4.9 cm sea level rise, or 1.9 inches. They use an IPCC projection of a possible 1 meter or 3 foot sea level rise by 2100. This is a lot faster than the current rate. Much of the island is 15 m above sea level, and 30% is below 5 meters. They do not point out how much is below 1 meter above mean sea level.
Between 1980 to 2014, 34 years, average annual rainfall increased 24% or 1.75 feet, or 21 inches, to 9.0 feet, or 108 inches a year. That is a lot of rain, reflecting being on the equator and warm, which evaporates a lot of water.
Singapore suffers from vector borne diseases such as dengue. They also expect more warm weather to cause distress among the sick and elderly.
They import 90% of their food, and worry about drought increasing prices.
Trump is used to Florida hurricanes and rain, which he can skip, and mosquitos. He will never run out of Big Macs, though.
Doing the conversions for this article, I realize why Trump can’t engage in any technical talks. Kim uses the universal Metric System, and Trump the English System. I’m guessing that Trump can’t convert between them.
This week the Temperature is 91 degrees F, cloudy, humidity at 62% so that it feels like 103 degrees F, and with Thunderstorms starting Wednesday.
The following is a sea level map of southern Singapore. The meeting took place on the island of Sentosa at the bottom center. There are beaches on the southern part of Sentosa that will be affected by sea-level rise, as well as the Eastern part of Sentosa.
