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Although the Korean government took control of the remainder of the quadrennial event, whose participants exited the campsite due to the rapidly-approaching Typhoon Khanun, government ministries and organizers are still undecided on how to deliver the Jamboree flag to the event’s next host, Poland, at the closing ceremony on Friday.

The Korean government created a team led by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to handle the rest of the Jamboree event to ensure that the Scouts can enjoy Korean culture during the remaining period of the event. However, government ministries and organizers are passing on the responsibility to other agencies, especially involving matters related to the flag handover ceremony.

When The Korea Times inquired about the flag handover event, an official at the prime minister’s office in charge of the Jamboree said the matter should be referred to the organizing committee.

The secretary general of the Jamboree organizing committee, Choi Chang-haeng, refused to comment on the issue, and other senior officials of the committee said they do not have knowledge of the ceremony, and added that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism should be contacted instead.

A spokesperson for the culture ministry said the flag ceremony is not its responsibility and pointed to the organizing committee as the source to contact.

The Ministry of Gender Equality, which was initially in charge of the event, also did not respond to The Korea Times’ questions about the flag ceremony.

Regarding the same inquiry, the World Organization of the Scout Movement said, “We’re unable to comment on any details regarding the closing ceremony for the moment.”

Initially, Polish President Andrzej Duda was scheduled to visit Korea on Wednesday to attend the closing ceremony and receive the Jamboree flag as the leader of the next host nation. The next Jamboree will take place in Gdansk in 2027.

During his stay in Korea, Duda planned to meet Korean business leaders and visit weapons manufacturers, which are supplying tanks, self-propelled howitzers and fighter jets to Poland. Also, he was anticipated to have a meeting with the Korean president in Seoul, though it may not be an official summit.

However, Duda canceled his visit, due largely to Typhoon Khanun which was approaching the Korean Peninsula, Wednesday, and the Jamboree closing ceremony is not likely to be held as planned, according to Seoul’s presidential office.

And it remains unclear whether a Polish government official will attend the closing ceremony and receive the Jamboree flag.

According to the Polish embassy in Seoul, the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association is taking care of matters related to the Jamboree, while the Polish embassy in Korea is not involved in the closing ceremony, meaning it does not have information on the matter.

The Jamboree, which kicked off on Aug. 1, became the target of criticism, due to poor preparation by the event organizers and faulty facilities management, which triggered international concerns over the safety of participating Scouts under the extreme heatwave that affected the original campsite of Saemangeum, a vast reclaimed tidal flat in North Jeolla Province.

As setbacks continued at the campsite, the government took control of the event from its organizers, and nearly 40,000 participants made an early exit from the campsite, Monday, due to risks posed by the heat wave and the typhoon. The Scouts were relocated to Seoul and seven other locations and will spend the rest of their stay there until the closing ceremony.

Italian Scouts who participated in the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, embark on a tour bus in Jung District, Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap

While it became uncertain whether the flag can be delivered to the next host at the ceremony, government staffers are also crying foul over the government’s unorganized control of the event.

According to the State Public Officials’ Labor Union, a union of government officials, the interior and safety ministry asked each ministry on Monday to send at least 10 staffers to gather at the Government Complex in Sejong at 6:30 a.m., Tuesday, to support the Scout members travelling across the country.

However, just hours before that gathering time, the safety ministry said not all of them are required to be there and ordered some of them to go back to their office as usual, despite some officials have to go back to their office in Seoul, which takes approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes by car.

“The government is making orders through text messages and emails, without telling how long it will take and what work we should do while reiterating the situation is flexible,” the union said in a statement.

“Though it is public officials’ duty to serve for the country, but we are not a subject whose fundamental human dignity is disregarded, being mobilized without any agreement, direction, or knowledge of where to go and how long it will take.”

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Desperate to cool her, Dr. Alexander St. John grabbed a body bag, filled it with ice from the hospital kitchen and zipped the woman inside. Within minutes, her body temperature dropped and her symptoms improved.

“I’ve never had to do that before. It was surreal,” said St. John. “Twenty years ago, it seems like we would talk about climate change as something that would happen over the coming generations — and all of a sudden it seems to be accelerating to the point where we’re all experiencing it in real-time.”

The technique was used to save several other patients at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center during the five-day heatwave last June that saw temperatures spike as high as 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) in some places and killed an estimated 600 people or more across Oregon, Washington and western Canada.

The sweltering stretch across the normally cool region offers a glimpse of the types of extreme weather events that will accelerate in North America within 30 years without a coordinated effort to slow climate change, according to a United Nations report released this week. Even if global warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, people across the U.S., Mexico and Canada will be at increased risk of catastrophic weather events.

The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lays out how worsening global warming will endanger people’s health, drive food insecurity, spur economic upheaval and trigger migration from increasingly uninhabitable places. Low-income and minority populations will be the hardest hit, according to the report, exacerbating existing inequities.

In the West, the report forecasts intensifying drought, extreme heat and wildfires. The Gulf Coast is expected to get more destructive hurricanes and rising sea levels. In the Midwest and Northeast, heavier rains are expected to cause more flooding and damage to crops.

In the summer of 2019, flooding in the U.S. Midwest and South disrupted barge traffic on the Mississippi River and damaged cropland in Ohio and Indiana. A different downpour and flood months earlier crippled Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

The economic impacts will be profound. Warming water and ocean acidification will disrupt commercial fisheries, extreme heat will mean lower yields of key crops such as corn and soybeans and drought will cause livestock losses as animals have less ground to forage, the report found.

Since 1980, there have been 35 floods not associated with hurricanes in the U.S. that have caused more than $1 billion in damage and more than half of those have been since 2010, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“We’re exposed to untold damage,” said Kathleen Miller, a lead author of the report’s North America chapter who studies the economic impacts of climate change at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

“It’s time to step up and start thinking about what are our priorities and how can we address these mounting threats,” she said.

The report still holds out hope that people can slow climate change — or at least adapt to blunt its effects. Prioritizing society’s most vulnerable will have the greatest impact on climate resiliency, it said.

The type of adjustments cited in the report is already underway in the Pacific Northwest, which was not built for hot weather. In Seattle, for example, 44% of homes have air conditioning.

After last summer’s deadly heatwave, Portland officials are considering alarm systems in public housing that would alert building managers when temperatures climb above 100 degrees. City officials also approved a plan to distribute 15,000 heat pumps, which are an energy-efficient way to cool spaces. Oregon lawmakers are also considering $15 million in funding to boost the distribution of air purifiers, air conditioners and heat pumps.

Longer-term discussions in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere include painting rooftops white and using lighter-colored pavement to repel sunlight, planting more trees in urban centers and creating neighborhood cooling hubs that could also be social spots.

The measures will be key for the groups hit hardest by last summer’s deadly heatwave — the elderly living alone, the disabled and the poor.

None of those who died in Portland had central air conditioning, more than half lived in apartments and 10% lived in mobile homes, according to data released by Multnomah County. The city’s light-rail train stopped working, making it difficult for low-income residents to reach cooling centers hastily set up in public libraries.

An analysis of data from 1,000 residences found the average temperature in richer homes was 75 degrees, compared with 125 degrees in poorer homes, said Vivek Shandas, a climate professor at Portland State University.

That shows how those with resources can “further isolate themselves and safeguard themselves,” he said.

Renee Salas, an emergency room doctor and a fellow at Harvard University’s Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, noted that health risks are increasingly not only from heat, but from worsening wildfires that send smoke plumes thousands of miles across North America and rising temperatures that could foster the spread of diseases by mosquitoes and ticks such as dengue fever, West Nile and Lyme disease.

Adaptation will mean considering climate change as a secondary diagnosis for many patients and treating it accordingly, Salas said. In the future, doctors might write prescriptions for air purifiers or heat pumps the way they do for medications and a national system of health records could help keep medical treatment consistent for patients who become climate refugees.

“There are so many things that we can do in order to optimally identify who’s most at risk and to then help protect them,” she said. “The time to do that is now when we’re already beginning to see the impact.”

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Farmer Adel Dahshan, wearing a white galabeya stained with mango juice, said his farmed areas have yielded just a tiny fraction of their normal bounty.

A sudden heatwave swept the province of Ismailia, which borders the Suez Canal, in early winter and then again in late March, and those hot days and cool nights have disrupted the fruit’s development.

“The weather at night isn’t warm, it’s cold and that affects the growth of the flowers, of the fruit,” said Dahshan, 49. Ayman Abou Hadid, an environment and agriculture professor at Ain Shams University said the irregular temperatures were caused by climate change.

Those fluctuations and increased humidity levels, along with a deadly crop disease that thrives in warm, have slashed mango production by 50%-80%, according to Hadid, a former agricultural minister.

Standing below a nearly barren mango tree, farmer Yasser Dahshan holds a branch, its once waxy, green leaves consumed by a soot-like growth that blocks the sunlight the fruit needs.

Dahshan, whose orchards have been hit particularly hard by the pest-induced disease, said many Ismailia residents who grow mangoes for a living have lost work as related farming activity has been subdued.

“You see, there is no mango,” he says. “If the crop was good, you’d find people hard at work, picking the mangoes, gathering them, loading them into cars.”

Mangoes are a beloved part of summer in Egypt, sunset-colored varieties normally abundant in fruit stalls and juice shops through the streets of the capital Cairo. This year’s low yield has driven prices up, hurting sellers and customers.

Eid Abou Ali, who owns a roadside fruit stand in Ismailia, said it would take him a week to sell as many mangoes as he would have sold in two or three days a year ago.

“A kilo that once went for 20 pounds now goes for 30 or 35, and people are unwilling to pay,” he said.

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The largest wildfire of the year in California — the Beckwourth Complex — was raging along the Nevada state line and has burned about 134 square miles (348 square kilometers) as state regulators asked consumers to voluntarily “conserve as much electricity as possible” to avoid any outages starting Monday afternoon.

In Oregon, the Bootleg Fire exploded to 224 square miles (580 square kilometers) as it raced through heavy timber in the Fremont-Winema National Forest, near the Klamath County town of Sprague River. The fire disrupted service on three transmission lines providing up to 5,500 megawatts of electricity to neighboring California.

A wildfire in southeast Washington grew to almost 60 square miles while in Idaho, Gov. Brad Little has mobilized the National Guard to help fight fires sparked after lightning storms swept across the drought-stricken region.

The blazes come as the West is in the midst of a second extreme heatwave within just a few weeks and as the entire region is suffering from one of the worst droughts in recent history. Extreme heat warnings in California were finally expected to expire Monday night.

On Sunday, firefighters working in temperatures that topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) were able to gain some ground on the Beckwourth Complex, doubling containment to 20%.

Late Saturday, flames jumped U.S. 395, which was closed near the small town of Doyle in California’s Lassen County. The lanes reopened Sunday, and officials urged motorists to use caution and keep moving along the key north-south route where flames were still active.

“Do not stop and take pictures,” said the fire’s Operations Section Chief Jake Cagle. “You are going to impede our operations if you stop and look at what’s going on.”

Cagle said structures had burned in Doyle, but he didn’t have an exact number. Bob Prary, who manages the Buck-Inn Bar in the town of about 600 people, said he saw at least six houses destroyed after Saturday’s flareup. The fire was smoldering Sunday in and around Doyle, but he feared some remote ranch properties were still in danger.

“It seems like the worst is over in town, but back on the mountainside the fire’s still going strong,” Prary said.

A new fire broke out Sunday afternoon in the Sierra Nevada south of Yosemite National Park and by evening covered more than 6 square miles (15.5 square kilometers), triggering evacuations in areas of two counties. Containment was just 5% but the highway leading to the southern entrance of the park remained open early Monday.

In Arizona, a small plane crashed Saturday during a survey of a wildfire in rural Mohave County, killing both crew members.

The Beech C-90 aircraft was helping perform reconnaissance over the lightning-caused Cedar Basin Fire, near the tiny community of Wikieup northwest of Phoenix.

Officials on Sunday identified the victims as Air Tactical Group Supervisor Jeff Piechura, 62, a retired Tucson-area fire chief who was working for the Coronado National Forest, and Matthew Miller, 48, a pilot with Falcon Executive Aviation contracted by the U.S. Forest Service. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.

A wildfire in southeast Washington had burned almost 60 square miles (155 square kilometers) as it blackened grass and timber while it moved into the Umatilla National Forest.

In Idaho, Gov. Brad Little declared a wildfire emergency Friday and mobilized the state’s National Guard to help fight fires sparked after lightning storms swept across the drought-stricken region.

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Cordell Kress, who farms in southeastern Idaho, expects his winter white wheat to produce about half as many bushels per acre as it does in a normal year when he begins to harvest next week, and he has already destroyed some of his withered canola and safflower oilseed crops.

The Pacific Northwest is the only part of the United States that grows soft white wheat used to make sponge cakes and noodles, and farmers were hoping to capitalize on high grain prices. Other countries including Australia and Canada grow white wheat, but the U.S. variety is especially prized by Asian buyers.

“The general mood among farmers in my area is as dire as I’ve ever seen it,” Kress said. “Something about the drought like this just wears on you. You see your blood, sweat, and tears just slowly wither away and die.”

U.S. exports of white wheat in the marketing year that ended May 31 reached a 40-year high of 265 million bushels, driven by unprecedented demand from China.

But farmers may not have as much to sell this year.

“The Washington wheat crop is in pretty rough shape right now,” said Clark Neely, a Washington State University agronomist. The U.S. Agriculture Department this week rated 68% of the state’s spring wheat and 36% of its winter wheat in poor or very poor condition. A year ago, just 2% of the state’s winter wheat and 6% of its spring wheat were rated poor to very poor. [US/WHE]

On top of the expected yield losses, grain buyers worry about quality. Flour millers turn to Pacific Northwest soft white wheat for its low protein content, which is well-suited for pastries and crackers.

But the drought is shriveling wheat kernels and raising protein levels, making some of the crop less valuable. “The protein is so high that you can’t use (it) for anything but cattle feed,” Kress said.

Low-protein “soft” wheat has lower gluten content than the “hard” wheat used for bread, producing a less-stretchy dough for delicate cakes and crackers.

The Washington State Agriculture Department said it was still too early to estimate lost revenue from crop damage.

The heat peaked in late June, in the thick of the harvest of cherries. Temperatures reached 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 Celsius) on June 28 at The Dalles, Oregon, along the Washington border, near the heart of the cherry country.

Scientists have said the suffocating heat that killed hundreds of people would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change and such events could become more common.

The National Weather Service posted weekend heat advisories for eastern Washington.

NIGHTTIME CHERRY HARVEST; SUN NETS FOR APPLES

On the hottest days last month, laborers who normally start picking cherries at 4 a.m. began at 1 a.m., armed with headlamps and roving spotlights to beat the daytime heat that threatened their safety and made the fruit too soft to harvest.

The region should still produce a roughly average-sized cherry harvest, but not the bumper crop initially expected, said B.J. Thurlby, president of the Northwest Cherry Growers, a grower-funded trade group representing top cherry producer Washington and other Western states.

“We think we probably lost about 20% of the crop,” Thurlby said, adding that growers simply had to abandon a portion of the heat-damaged cherries in their orchards.

The heat wave’s impact on Washington’s $2 billion apple crop – the state’s most valuable agricultural product – is uncertain, as harvest is at least six weeks away. Apple growers are used to sleepless nights as they respond to springtime frosts but have little experience with sustained heat in June.

“We really don’t know what the effects are. We just have to ride it out,” said Todd Fryhover, president of the Washington Apple Commission.

Growers have been protecting their orchards with expansive nets that protect the fruit against sunburn, and by spraying water vapor above the trees. Apples have stopped growing, for the time being, Fryhover said, but it is possible the crop may make up for lost time if weather conditions normalize.

The state wine board in Oregon, known for its Pinot Noir, said the timing of the heat spike may have benefited grapes. Last year, late-summer wildfires and wind storms forced some West Coast vineyards to leave damaged grapes unharvested.

Washington’s wine grapes also seem fine so far, one vineyard manager said. “I think wine grapes are situated well to handle high heat in June,” said Sadie Drury, general manager of North Slope Management.

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And it won’t get any better at night time. Overnight temperatures over the weekend won’t drop below 80 degrees in many cities across the East Coast, the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center said.

9 PM EDT Friday: Heat index values are mainly in the lower/mid 90s. Probably won’t get below 80 tonight, and we’ll be back up around 105 for the third straight day on Saturday. #kywx #BeatTheHeatpic.twitter.com/mGPd5Zq96S

— NWS Louisville (@NWSLouisville) July 20, 2019

Across the upper East Coast on Saturday, the weather service said, the most dangerous time will be mid-afternoon into early evening hours, when temperatures and humidity will peak.

“Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside,” the service said. “When possible, reschedule strenuous activities to the early morning the late evening.”

In Philadelphia and New Jersey, the weather service warned the heat may cause heat stress or heat stroke. The elderly and people with pre-existing conditions are most at risk.

In Detroit, where residents will see a heat index of up to 105 degrees Saturday, more than 200,000 people did not have power in the early morning hours after thunderstorms caused trees and branches to take down power lines.

By Saturday afternoon, power had been restored to all but about 70,000, officials said.

But relief is coming. A cold front will drop into the central US and portions of the Midwest late Saturday, which will bring cool air in the Midwest Sunday, CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera said. The East Coast will begin cooling down Monday, Cabrera said.

Until then, city officials are taking precautions against the sweltering heat and preparing for what could be a deadly weekend.

Track the extreme heat here

Heat wave in the Big Apple

In New York — which has declared an emergency — many events have been canceled or postponed after concerns of participants’ health.

How heat waves can kill — and how to stay safe

Saturday’s card of horse racing at New York’s Saratoga Race Course was canceled. So were all races Saturday and Sunday at the Maryland Jockey Club in Laurel.

“The health and safety of our horses and jockeys is our highest priority,” Maryland Jockey Club President and General Manager Sal Sinatra said.

The New York City Triathlon also was canceled.

“After exhausting all options to mitigate athlete, volunteer, spectator and staff exposure alike, we are unable to provide either a safe event experience or an alternate race weekend,” organizers said.

In an executive order that lasts until Sunday night, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered office buildings 100 feet or taller to raise thermostats to 78 degrees and encouraged residents to set their thermostats higher to reduce energy use.

The city is opening about 500 air-conditioned “cooling centers” in public facilities. Public pools were to be open an extra hour (until 8 p.m.) from Friday through Sunday, And the city will set up portable drinking fountains at busy pedestrian areas through Sunday.

We’re currently projecting this heat emergency will be over by end of day Sunday. We’ll have more updates throughout the weekend. Keep an eye on @NotifyNYC and again, keep cool, drink plenty of water and keep safe, New York City.

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) July 19, 2019

The Brooklyn Defender Services called on the mayor and the Department of Corrections Commissioner Cynthia Brann to protect inmates from the heat.

“Most incarcerated people are without air conditioning and the limited number of fans are only in the day rooms, leaving people to swelter, particularly while in their cells,” the organization said. “DOC is not providing appropriate summer clothes to many of our clients. People with medical needs have reported feeling nauseous and dizzy.”

What is the heat index?

Protect your animals

In many locations across the country, city officials and emergency departments are warning against the danger that pets will face.

“A closed car can rise to 125 degrees in just 8 minutes,” the Massachusetts Department of Public Health wrote on Twitter.

Animals, according to the weather service, can die of heat stroke within 15 minutes. Cracking car windows won’t help. Keep your pets at home during hot weather, the service said, and if you see an animal inside a car, don’t leave without solving the problem.

As New York City heats up, #NYPD Mounted cools down. To ensure the safety of our 4 legged partners the Mounted Unit remains indoors during heat advisories. Please remember to check on anyone including pets that may be vulnerable to the heat. Stay hydrated and keep cool. #heatwave pic.twitter.com/8Yi3X7aCht

— NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) July 19, 2019

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals recommends lots of fresh, clean water.

“Know the symptoms of overheating in pets, which include excessive panting or difficulty breathing, increased heart and respiratory rate, drooling, mild weakness, stupor or even collapse,” the organization said.

You know that burning feeling you get when you go barefoot onto asphalt/concrete etc.. you’re dogs feel it too. With the #heatwave the ground temps will be in excess of 120*F.
Keeps your dogs on the grass when you take them out for their walk! pic.twitter.com/xqSFZ6OVmP

— Upper Darby Police (@UDPolice) July 18, 2019

How climate change has played a role

Each year, summer heat kills more Americans on average than any other natural disaster, CNN meteorologist Cabrera said.

Worldwide, June 2019 was the hottest June ever, according to more than a

century of weather records

And the threat of heat waves will get more serious across the globe and more widespread as the climate crisis continues, says Francesco Rocca, president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

A new report by the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre says 17 of the 18 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001.

“Climate projections indicate that if greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current pathway, by the year 2100 three out of four people on Earth could be subject to at least 20 days per year of potentially deadly heat and humidity levels,” the report says.

And in the US, the number of days each year with a heat index of more than 100 degrees will more than double by mid-century, a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists says.

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