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Gulf Today
6 days ago
- Climate
- Gulf Today
Heat is the new silent killer across world
Three international organisations – Climate Central, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and World Weather Attribution – have released a report about the rising temperature in 2024 which could be traced to the effect of climate change. The report said that 4 billion people in the world experienced 30 days more of extreme heat. And there were 67 extreme heat events. And they said that this was a direct result of the unabated use of fossil fuels and the carbon dioxide they released into the atmosphere. They analyzed weather data from May 1, 2024 to May 21, 2025. They found that the temperature crossed the 1.5 degrees Celsius barrier over the pre-industrial era, and over the last five years the average temperature was more than 1.3 degrees Celsius. The report noted, 'Although floods and cyclones dominate headlines, heat is arguably the deadliest extreme event.' Frederick Otto, associate professor of climate science at Imperial College, London, and one of the authors of the report said that heat was the silent killer. Deaths due to heat are mislabelled and underreported. He pointed out, 'People don't fall dead on the street in a heat either die in hospitals or in poorly insulated homes and therefore are not just every barrel of oil burned, every tonne of carbon dioxide released, and every fraction of a degree of warming, heat waves will affect more people.' The report showed that the Caribbean region was the most affected by the extreme events, accounting for 187 days last year. Without climate change the number would have been 45 days. It is the lower income communities and the vulnerable sections like the older people and those with medical conditions who remain most vulnerable to extreme heat. There was extreme heat in South Sudan in February, in Central Asia in March. And in the Mediterranean last July. At least 21 people died when the temperature touched 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius). Says Roop Singh, head, urban and attribution of Red Cross Red Crescent, in a World Weather Attribution statement, 'We need to quickly scale our responses to hear through better early warning systems, heat action plans, and long-term planning for heat in urban areas to meet the rising challenge.' He said that people are noticing that it is getting hotter but they do not see the connection with climate change. Many climate change researchers have warned against rising sea levels, melting glaciers and erratic rain patterns, but there was not much emphasis on rising heat and its immediate impact on people. The 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial or pre-1850 levels, a figure which was mentioned in the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 as the ceiling beyond which world temperatures should not go up, has remained an abstract figure. But the extreme heat events are proving to be dangerous and fatalistic. Extreme heat is now to be treated as a natural disaster even as governments treat excess rains, tropical cyclones and storms as such and provide relief through the national disaster relief programmes. The plain fact is extreme heat is a natural disaster and it is a consequence of climate change. The linkage of climate change to greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide, is pretty evident. The evidence is falling into a pattern. What is needed is determined response to the disaster that climate change brings. The response has to be an intelligent one based on hard data, and innovative solutions have to be found to mitigate the effects of extreme heat. Extreme heat cannot any more be dismissed as a weather vagary. It is a serious distortion of the weather pattern that we have known for thousands of years. The pattern is breaking down, and it brings in its wake disaster. Every measure has to be taken to prevent the disaster.
Boston Globe
30-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Half of world's population endured extra month of extreme heat due to climate change, experts say
The scientists used peer-reviewed methods to study how much climate change boosted temperatures in an extreme heat event and calculated how much more likely its occurrence was because of climate change. In almost all countries in the world, the number of extreme heat days has at least doubled compared with a world without climate change. Advertisement Caribbean islands were among the hardest hit by additional extreme heat days. Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States, endured 161 days of extreme heat. Without climate change, only 48 would have occurred. 'It makes it feel impossible to be outside,' said Charlotte Gossett Navarro, chief director for Puerto Rico at Hispanic Federation, a nonprofit focused on social and environmental issues in Latino communities, who lives in the San Juan area and was not involved in the report. 'Even something as simple as trying to have a day outdoors with family, we weren't able to do it because the heat was too high,' she said, reporting feeling dizzy and sick last summer. Advertisement When the power goes out, which happens frequently in Puerto Rico in part because of decades of neglected grid maintenance and damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017, Navarro said it is difficult to sleep. 'If you are someone relatively healthy, that is uncomfortable, it's hard to sleep ... but if you are someone who has a health condition, now your life is at risk,' Gossett Navarro said. Heat waves are silent killers, said Friederike Otto, associate professor of climate science at Imperial College London, one of the report's authors. 'People don't fall dead on the street in a heat wave ... people either die in hospitals or in poorly insulated homes and therefore are just not seen,' he said. Low-income communities and vulnerable populations, such as older adults and people with medical conditions, suffer the most from extreme heat. The high temperatures recorded in the extreme heat events that occurred in Central Asia in March, South Sudan in February and in the Mediterranean last July would have not been possible without climate change, according to the report. At least 21 people died in Morocco after temperatures hit 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) last July. People are noticing temperatures are getting hotter but don't always know it is being driven by climate change, said Roop Singh, head of urban and attribution at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, in a World Weather Attribution statement. 'We need to quickly scale our responses to heat through better early warning systems, heat action plans, and long-term planning for heat in urban areas to meet the rising challenge,' Singh said. City-led initiatives to tackle extreme heat are becoming popular in parts of South Asia, North America, Europe and Australia to coordinate resources across governments and other agencies. One example is a tree-planting initiative launched in Marseille, France, to create more shaded areas. Advertisement The report says strategies to prepare for heat waves include monitoring and reporting systems for extreme temperatures, providing emergency health services, cooling shelters, updated building codes, enforcing heat safety rules at work, and designing cities to be more heat-resilient. But without phasing out fossil fuels, heat waves will continue becoming more severe and frequent and protective measures against the heat will lose their effectiveness, the scientists said.
The Sun
30-05-2025
- Science
- The Sun
Climate change adds an extra month of extreme heat for 4 billion people: Report
ISTANBUL: Human-driven climate change added an average of 30 extra days of extreme heat over the past year for nearly half of the world's population, according to a new report released Friday ahead of Heat Action Day on June 2. The study, conducted by scientists from World Weather Attribution (WWA), Climate Central, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, emphasises the growing risks posed by heat waves as global fossil fuel use continues, Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported. Between May 2024 and May 2025, some four billion people, about half of the global population, faced at least 30 additional days of extreme heat, defined as temperatures hotter than 90 per cent of historical observations for their regions, compared to a world without climate change. The researchers also found that climate change increased the number of extreme heat days by at least twofold in 195 countries and territories. All 67 major heat events recorded in the last year were exacerbated by human-caused climate change. 'This study needs to be taken as another stark warning. Climate change is here, and it kills,' said Friederike Otto, co-lead of WWA and senior lecturer at Imperial College London. 'We know exactly how to stop heat waves from getting worse: restructure our energy systems to be more efficient and based on renewables, not fossil fuels.' Mariam Zachariah, a researcher at Imperial College London, described the results as 'staggering,' noting that frequent, intense heat spells are linked to widespread impacts, including heat illnesses, deaths, crop losses, lowered productivity, and transport disruptions. Roop Singh, head of Urban and Attribution at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, emphasised the urgent need to scale up responses. 'We need better early warning systems, heat action plans, and long-term urban planning to meet the rising challenge,' Singh said. Vice President for Science at Climate Central Kristina Dahl stressed that heat is the deadliest consequence of climate change. 'There is no place on Earth untouched by climate change, and we have the science to quantify how fossil fuel emissions are reshaping our daily temperatures and putting billions at risk,' she said. The report calls for governments to strengthen heat action plans, increase monitoring and reporting of heat impacts, and prioritise long-term adaptation strategies.
The Sun
30-05-2025
- Science
- The Sun
Climate change added 30 days of extreme heat globally
ISTANBUL: Human-driven climate change added an average of 30 extra days of extreme heat over the past year for nearly half of the world's population, according to a new report released Friday ahead of Heat Action Day on June 2. The study, conducted by scientists from World Weather Attribution (WWA), Climate Central, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, emphasises the growing risks posed by heat waves as global fossil fuel use continues, Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported. Between May 2024 and May 2025, some four billion people, about half of the global population, faced at least 30 additional days of extreme heat, defined as temperatures hotter than 90 per cent of historical observations for their regions, compared to a world without climate change. The researchers also found that climate change increased the number of extreme heat days by at least twofold in 195 countries and territories. All 67 major heat events recorded in the last year were exacerbated by human-caused climate change. 'This study needs to be taken as another stark warning. Climate change is here, and it kills,' said Friederike Otto, co-lead of WWA and senior lecturer at Imperial College London. 'We know exactly how to stop heat waves from getting worse: restructure our energy systems to be more efficient and based on renewables, not fossil fuels.' Mariam Zachariah, a researcher at Imperial College London, described the results as 'staggering,' noting that frequent, intense heat spells are linked to widespread impacts, including heat illnesses, deaths, crop losses, lowered productivity, and transport disruptions. Roop Singh, head of Urban and Attribution at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, emphasised the urgent need to scale up responses. 'We need better early warning systems, heat action plans, and long-term urban planning to meet the rising challenge,' Singh said. Vice President for Science at Climate Central Kristina Dahl stressed that heat is the deadliest consequence of climate change. 'There is no place on Earth untouched by climate change, and we have the science to quantify how fossil fuel emissions are reshaping our daily temperatures and putting billions at risk,' she said. The report calls for governments to strengthen heat action plans, increase monitoring and reporting of heat impacts, and prioritise long-term adaptation strategies.
Asharq Al-Awsat
04-04-2025
- Climate
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Study: Crops Under Threat as Surprise March Heatwave Hits Central Asia
A surprise heatwave hit Central Asia in March, a new study published Friday showed, putting in danger crops and water supply in a largely rural region already heavily affected by the impacts of climate change. Temperatures across the month were up to 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter in the region than the pre-industrial average, according to World Weather Attribution, a coalition of scientists that studies the impact of climate change on extreme weather events, which conducted the research. Climate change intensified the heatwave by about 4 degrees Celsius, the group said, though cautioned that figure "is likely an underestimate." "This is a heatwave that didn't make headlines –- it happened in spring and in a region that isn't exactly known for blistering heatwaves," said Maja Vahlberg, a technical adviser at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre who took part in the study. The research was conducted across the five Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. "Our heatwave studies often detect changes of 2 to 4 degrees Celsius (35-39 degrees Fahrenheit), so 10 degree Celsius is quite frankly bonkers," said Ben Clarke from Imperial College London. "Hotter March temperatures are impacting agriculture harvests and access to water in Central Asia, as well as people's health," said Friederike Otto, co-head of World Weather Attribution. The melting of thousands of glaciers is a major threat to people in the landlocked region, which already suffers from water shortages. Between 14 and 30 percent of glaciers in the Tian-Shan and Pamir -- the two main mountain ranges in Central Asia -- have melted over the last 60 years, according to a report by the Eurasian Development Bank. The heatwave coincides with a crucial agricultural season, when almonds, apricots and cherries bloom and wheat is sowed. Around half of all workers in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are employed in agriculture, which makes up one-fifth of the region's economy. In particularly hot spots, temperatures hit 30 degrees Celsius -- highly unusual for March. Central Asia is typically characterized by exceptionally hot summers and harsh, cold winters. Climate scientists said early heatwaves in the region would likely continue, seeing it as a trend rather than a one-off event. "We should expect events like this often," Clarke told AFP during an online briefing.
