Temperature spike: Earth ties record high heat May reading
Washington: Earth's temperature spiked to tie a record high for May, US meteorologists reported Friday. Last month the global average temperature was 60.3 degrees (15.7 degrees Celsius), tying 2016 for the hottest May in 141 years of record keeping, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
That's 1.7 degrees (nearly 1 degree Celsius) higher than the 20th century average for Earth. Temperature on land set a heat record, while ocean temperatures ranked second. Parts of Africa, Asia, western Europe, South and Central America had record warmth.
We continue to warm on the long term and in any given month we're likely to be knocking on the door, close to a record in the era that we're in, NOAA climate monitoring chief Deke Arndt said.
The last seven Mays, from 2014 to 2020, have been the seven warmest Mays on record. This past spring was the second hottest on record, behind 2016. And this year so far is the second hottest five-month start of a year.
Arndt said it's highly likely that 2020 will be one of the two hottest years since 1880. (AP) ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Dalit outfits call state-wide hartal over dental student’s death
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Various Dalit organisations on Monday announced a state-wide hartal seeking justice in the death of Kannur Dental College student Nithin Raj.
The hartal will be observed on Tuesday from 6 am to 6 pm.
As many as 52 Dalit organisations, including Justice for Nithin Raj Action Council, have announced the strike.
Organisations requesting cooperation for the strike said that no vehicles will be forcibly stopped and that all essential services are exempted.
Raj, a first-year BDS student at a private dental college in Anjarakkandy in Kannur district, was found critically injured after falling from a building on April 10 and later succumbed to his injuries.
Police have registered a case against two faculty members on charges of abetment of suicide and under provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, following allegations by the student’s family that he was subjected to caste- and complexion-based harassment.
Kerala Pinnokka Samudaya Munnani (KPSM), one of the organisations supporting the hartal, alleged in a statement that police had shown apathy in the investigation and were attempting to protect the accused in the case.
KPSM state president K V Padmanabhan and general secretary S Anwar alleged that the probe into Raj’s death was being deliberately misdirected and delayed.
While the family has firmly alleged that caste discrimination and mental harassment by faculty members led to the student’s death, police were attempting to divert the investigation towards loan app borrowings, they claimed.
The organisation alleged that this was a planned move to shield the real accused.
KPSM further alleged that by deliberately delaying the arrest of the accused teachers, police enabled them to secure anticipatory bail.
They said there was no confidence in the present police investigation and demanded that the case be handed over to an independent agency at the earliest.
