Extreme Heat Risks are Underestimated, Study Says

Inside Climate News reports that extreme heat studies presented at the European Geosciences Union online conference in April 2021 show that the global death toll from extreme heat is rising.

Scientists warn that climate change increases the chances of fatal heat waves. However, according to the article, in many regions, preparations to protect citizens are inadequate mainly because large parts of society still do not treat heat as a threat.

The most vulnerable areas are densely populated tropical regions, but these threats are not communicated to those concerned. A study in April showed that power failure during heat waves in the US could increase the death toll.

Updates from the US EPA show that major American cities experience three times as many heat waves, four or more days with temperatures that historically only happened every ten years, because large parts of society don’t treat heat as a threat.

According to the climate change indicators on heat waves on the EPA website, heatwave frequency, duration, season, and intensity have steadily increased since the 1960s, with the heatwave season (the number of days between the first and last heatwave of the year) having extended to 47 days.

Aside from heat exhaustion, heat waves can cause pre-term births.

Record temperatures persist through the night in April in central Eurasia, North Africa, and Europe. According to the article, if people experience sweltering temperatures during the daytime and cannot cool down at night, it could compound the health risks from the heat waves.

WHO data show that between 1998 and 2017, the intense heat claimed 166 thousand lives, including 70 thousand from Europe’s heatwave. In the US, the CDC recorded 7,800 heat-related deaths between 1999 and 2009, while the EPA shows an average of 1,300 yearly fatalities.

Chloe Brimicombe, a climate researcher from the University of Reading, says that heatwave-related deaths are not necessarily captured in the news. Compared to other risks, heat is also not adequately looked at in research and policy. However, it is an invisible killer, and to help communicate the risk, she proposes a scale of heat danger developed in 2009 that “adds up a combination of conditions that affect human health.”

Regions that will experience the worst heat

Extreme heat will intensify in tropical regions in Africa and South Asia. According to the article, by 2070, the combination of intense heat or temperatures above 96 degrees Fahrenheit and humidity will put 1.7 billion people at risk.

If warming continues through 2050, the Tropics will be unlivable, and the poorest of the population who are working long hours and exposed to heat will be the most vulnerable.

Extreme heat will also intensify problems in human health, wildfire, and food production.

Mike Byrne, a climate scientist at the University of Oxford, has shown through his ongoing research that extreme heat intensifies in tropical lands more than the global average land surface.

He says, “With this fast pace of warming of temperature extremes, we might actually pass a fundamental limit, beyond the human ability to cool itself.” He says more research should be done to understand what drives the extremes in the tropics, adding that the current understanding of such events is based on studies done in cooler regions.

Dire climate projections, such as the lengthening, persisting, and expanding fatal heatwaves, should prompt governments to start implementing climate adaptation and mitigation actions to protect their citizens from the impending threats of climate change.

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