Record summer heat kills over 61,000 in Europe in 2022: study

STORY: Record summer heat kills over 61,000 in Europe in 2022: study DATELINE: July 18, 2023 LENGTH: 00:01:26 LOCATION: BARCELONA, Spain CATEGORY: HEALTH/SOCIETY SHOTLIST: 1. various of people protecting and refreshing themselves during the intense heat of the summer of 2022 in Barcelona, Spain 2. various of Sant Pau hospital 3. various of people in summer STORYLINE: More than 61,000 people died because of the record summer heat across Europe in 2022, according to a study published in the journal Nature Medicine. Led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), the study used data between 2015 and 2022 from 823 regions in 35 European countries. It shows that the summer of 2022 in Europe was one of the hottest on record with warmer-than-average temperatures during every week of the summer period. Italy, Spain and Portugal had the highest heat-related mortality rates. There is an "urgent need to strengthen prevention plans," said ISGlobal researcher Hicham Achebak. Researchers warned that s

Butterfly boom in China's Yunnan

STORY: Butterfly boom in China's Yunnan DATELINE: May 29, 2023 LENGTH: 0:00:48 LOCATION: KUNMING, China CATEGORY: ENVIRONMENT SHOTLIST: 1. various of butterflies STORYLINE: SOUNDBITE 1 (English): ZHAO ZHIQIN, Xinhua correspondent "Do you know 'butterfly explosion'? Every year in late spring and early summer, tens of millions of butterflies emerge from their chrysalises in the Honghe Butterfly Valley in southwest China's Yunnan Province. Come with me to see the sea of butterflies." Due to warmer temperatures, the "butterfly explosion" this year occurred slightly earlier than usual. SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): YANG ZHENWEN, Curator of the butterfly valley museum in Jinping Miao, Yao, and Dai Autonomous County "With regard to the 'butterfly explosion' this year, we have obtained very good results from the four observation points. After analyzing the monitoring data of the 23 sampling sites, we've found that the butterflies this year are quite large and very healthy." About 80 million to 100 million butterflies