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French 'Spiderman' Scales Philippines Tower

Urban climber Alain Robert, also known as the "French Spiderman" climbs the G.T. International Tower in Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines, March 5, 2024. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez
Urban climber Alain Robert, also known as the "French Spiderman" climbs the G.T. International Tower in Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines, March 5, 2024. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez
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French 'Spiderman' Scales Philippines Tower

Urban climber Alain Robert, also known as the "French Spiderman" climbs the G.T. International Tower in Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines, March 5, 2024. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez
Urban climber Alain Robert, also known as the "French Spiderman" climbs the G.T. International Tower in Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines, March 5, 2024. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

A free climber known as the "French Spiderman" scaled a Manila skyscraper on Tuesday to support the Philippines' maritime claims in the disputed South China Sea.
Frenchman Alain Robert, who has scaled more than 150 structures worldwide, including Dubai's Burj Kalifa and France's Eiffel Tower, drew a crowd and disrupted traffic in the Philippine capital's financial district.
He climbed the 47-storey GT Tower without a harness, and was promptly arrested after successfully descending from the skyscraper, Reuters reported.
Robert said he climbed to raise awareness on the maritime disputes between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea.
"I know that there is tension, you know, with the Philippine Sea, and then just to remind people that the sea and the islands belong to the Philippines and no one else, so that's the purpose of my ascent today," Robert said, without explaining why he was drawn to the cause.
Robert climbed the same skyscraper in 2019. He was arrested and fined 1,000 pesos ($18) for his stunt.
The Philippines accused China of "dangerous maneuvers" on Tuesday that led to a collision between its coast guard ship and a Chinese vessel.
The incident was the latest in a series of maritime run-ins between the Philippines and China, which have been locked in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea despite a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration which found that China's claims had no legal basis. Beijing rejects that ruling.

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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)

Climate change is driving changes in rainfall patterns across the world, scientists said in a paper published on Friday, which could also be intensifying typhoons and other tropical storms.

Taiwan, the Philippines and then China were lashed by the year's most powerful typhoon this week, with schools, businesses and financial markets shut as wind speeds surged up to 227 kph (141 mph). On China's eastern coast, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated ahead of landfall on Thursday.

Stronger tropical storms are part of a wider phenomenon of weather extremes driven by higher temperatures, scientists say.

Researchers led by Zhang Wenxia at the China Academy of Sciences studied historical meteorological data and found about 75% of the world's land area had seen a rise in "precipitation variability" or wider swings between wet and dry weather.

Warming temperatures have enhanced the ability of the atmosphere to hold moisture, which is causing wider fluctuations in rainfall, the researchers said in a paper published by the Science journal.

"(Variability) has increased in most places, including Australia, which means rainier rain periods and drier dry periods," said Steven Sherwood, a scientist at the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the study.

"This is going to increase as global warming continues, enhancing the chances of droughts and/or floods."

FEWER, BUT MORE INTENSE, STORMS

Scientists believe that climate change is also reshaping the behavior of tropical storms, including typhoons, making them less frequent but more powerful.

"I believe higher water vapor in the atmosphere is the ultimate cause of all of these tendencies toward more extreme hydrologic phenomena," Sherwood told Reuters.

Typhoon Gaemi, which first made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday, was the strongest to hit the island in eight years.

While it is difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change, models predict that global warming makes typhoons stronger, said Sachie Kanada, a researcher at Japan's Nagoya University.

"In general, warmer sea surface temperature is a favorable condition for tropical cyclone development," she said.

In its "blue paper" on climate change published this month, China said the number of typhoons in the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea had declined significantly since the 1990s, but they were getting stronger.

Taiwan also said in its climate change report published in May that climate change was likely to reduce the overall number of typhoons in the region while making each one more intense.

The decrease in the number of typhoons is due to the uneven pattern of ocean warming, with temperatures rising faster in the western Pacific than the east, said Feng Xiangbo, a tropical cyclone research scientist at the University of Reading.

Water vapor capacity in the lower atmosphere is expected to rise by 7% for each 1 degree Celsius increase in temperatures, with tropical cyclone rainfall in the United States surging by as much as 40% for each single degree rise, he said.