Having the hottest ass around here is taking on a whole new meaning. Summer is coming and so is the heat. Heat waves are one of the biggest climate-related threats to human health and while we certainly feel them, because they are invisible, they are not as visibly devastating cyclones and floods so don't tend to hit headlines. And yet they kill more people than cyclones and floods combined. Hundreds of thousands of people die from them every year and they now occur around 3 times as often as they did 50 years ago.
Heat waves are one of the biggest climate-related threats to human health and according to Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance (EHRA), by 2050, heat waves are expected to affect more than 3.5 billion people globally, including 1.6 billion people in urban centers. As temperatures rise, more people will be impacted, affected by medical conditions like cardiovascular or respiratory diseases that are exacerbated by heat, an inadequate awareness of heat risks, and insufficient means to mitigate (e.g., costs of cooling measures such as air conditioning) the effects of high heat.
“NAMING HEAT WAVES AS A GLOBAL THREAT IS THE FIRST STEP TO BEING ABLE TO MITIGATE THE RISK TO VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES. WE KNOW THAT EXTREME HEAT HARMS THOSE WHO HAVE THE LEAST POWER TO PROTECT THEMSELVES AND HAS LONG TERM RIPPLE EFFECTS ON OUR HEALTH AND ECONOMY. RECOGNIZING THE IMPACT OF HEAT STORMS CAN GALVANIZE GLOBAL RISK PLAYERS TO TAKE ACTION”
A heat wave is defined by the National Weather Service as a period of abnormally and uncomfortably hot and unusually humid weather that typically lasts two or more days. The World Health Organization defines it in human-health terms: as prolonged periods of excessive heat that results in dehydration, heat stroke, heart kidney failure, and a host of heat-related illnesses that can lead to mortality.
“THE NAMING AND RANKING HEAT WAVES ALL OVER THE WORLD BY THE EXTREME HEAT RESILIENCE ALLIANCE WILL, FOR THE FIRST TIME, CONVEY THE TRUE NATURE OF THE THREAT HEAT POSES, ESSENTIAL TO PROTECTING VULNERABLE PEOPLE WHO ARE INCREASINGLY MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO ITS HARMFUL EFFECTS"
Currently, 30 percent of the world copes with deadly heat waves lasting 20 days or longer. Projections suggest heat waves will impact 75 percent of the planet’s inhabitants by 2100 if preventive measures are not implemented to mitigate their effects.
Image: Unsplash | Ali Saadat