Latest news with #WorldWeatherAttribution
Japan Times
3 hours ago
- Climate
- Japan Times
Half the world has faced an extra month of extreme heat, study finds
Half the global population endured an additional month of extreme heat over the past year because of human-caused climate change, a new study found Friday. The findings underscore how the continued burning of fossil fuels is harming health and well-being on every continent, with the effects especially under-recognized in developing countries, the authors said. "With every barrel of oil burned, every ton of carbon dioxide released, and every fraction of a degree of warming, heat waves will affect more people," said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and co-author of the report. The analysis — conducted by scientists at World Weather Attribution, Climate Central, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre — was released ahead of global Heat Action Day on June 2, which this year spotlights the dangers of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. To assess the influence of global warming, researchers analyzed the period from May 1, 2024 to May 1, 2025. They defined "extreme heat days" as those hotter than 90% of temperatures recorded at a given location between 1991 and 2020. Using a peer-reviewed modeling approach, they then compared the number of such days to a simulated world without human-caused warming. The results were stark: Roughly 4 billion people — 49% of the global population — experienced at least 30 more days of extreme heat than they would have otherwise. The team identified 67 extreme heat events during the year and found the fingerprint of climate change on all of them. The Caribbean island of Aruba was the worst affected, recording 187 extreme heat days — 45 more than expected in a world without climate change. The study follows a year of unprecedented global temperatures. 2024 was the hottest year on record, surpassing 2023, while January 2025 marked the hottest January ever. On a five-year average, global temperatures are now 1.3 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels — and in 2024 alone, they exceeded 1.5 C, the symbolic ceiling set by the Paris climate accord. The report also highlights a critical lack of data on heat-related health impacts in lower-income regions. While Europe recorded more than 61,000 heat-related deaths in the summer of 2022, comparable figures are sparse elsewhere, with many heat-related fatalities misattributed to underlying conditions such as heart or lung disease. The authors emphasized the need for early warning systems, public education, and heat action plans tailored to cities. Better building design — including shading and ventilation — and behavioral adjustments like avoiding strenuous activity during peak heat are also essential. Still, adaptation alone will not be enough. The only way to halt the rising severity and frequency of extreme heat, the authors warned, is to rapidly phase out fossil fuels.
Gulf Today
21 hours 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.
Arab Times
2 days ago
- Climate
- Arab Times
Climate change caused half the world to endure an extra month of extreme heat: experts
NEW YORK, May 31, (AP): Scientists say 4 billion people, about half the world's population, experienced at least one extra month of extreme heat because of human-caused climate change from May 2024 to May 2025. The extreme heat caused illness, death, crop losses, and strained energy and health care systems, according to the analysis from World Weather Attribution, Climate Central, and the Red Cross. "Although floods and cyclones often dominate headlines, heat is arguably the deadliest extreme event,' the report said. Many heat-related deaths are unreported or are mislabeled by other conditions like heart disease or kidney failure. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Health
- Malay Mail
Heatwaves getting worse? Scientists say answer is to cut out fossil fuels, fast
ISTANBUL, May 31 — 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. — Bernama-Anadolu
North Wales Chronicle
2 days ago
- Health
- North Wales Chronicle
Four billion endured extra month of extreme heat due to climate change
The extreme heat caused illness, death, crop losses, and strained energy and healthcare systems, according to the analysis from World Weather Attribution, Climate Central and the Red Cross. 'Although floods and cyclones often dominate headlines, heat is arguably the deadliest extreme event,' the report said. Many heat-related deaths are unreported or are mislabelled by other conditions such as heart disease or kidney failure. 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. Caribbean islands were among the hardest hit by additional extreme heat days, the report said. 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 non-profit 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.' 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, Ms Gossett 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,' she said. Heatwaves 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 heatwave… people either die in hospitals or in poorly insulated homes and therefore are just not seen,' she 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 48C last July. The report says strategies to prepare for heatwaves include monitoring and reporting systems for extreme temperatures, providing emergency health services, cooling shelters, updated building regulations, enforcing heat safety rules at work, and designing cities to be more heat-resilient. But without phasing out fossil fuels, heatwaves will continue becoming more severe and frequent and protective measures against the heat will lose their effectiveness, the scientists said.
