Latest news with #heatwaves
Bloomberg
17 hours ago
- Climate
- Bloomberg
Burning Roads, Invading Octopus Signal a Hot Summer Ahead
Today's newsletter looks at the summer ahead for the Northern Hemisphere and all of the troubling, surprising and weird impacts climate change is creating. Read on or get the full story on baking highways, new employee heat laws and a British octopus invasion on For unlimited access to climate and energy news, please subscribe. By Joe Wertz
Japan Times
a day ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Protect workers from heat waves or face fines, Japan tells firms
Tougher rules being enforced in Japan will see employers fined if they fail to take adequate precautions to protect workers from extreme temperatures. The revised legislation, which came into effect on Sunday, is a rare global example of a national-level policy on heat safety for employees, and comes after 30 workplace deaths and roughly 1,200 injuries last year associated with high temperatures, according to health ministry data. Most of those affected worked in construction or manufacturing. The government moved to strengthen protections following last summer's searing heat — which included the highest July temperatures on record, the ministry said in a statement. Businesses will face potential penalties including fines of ¥500,000 ($3,475) if provisions aren't sufficient. Heatstroke is a potentially life-threatening condition caused by a dangerously high body temperature that can result in severe organ damage if not treated quickly. There were almost half a million heat-related deaths annually between 2000 and 2019, according to a report last year by the World Health Organization. Along with public health impacts, higher temperatures can impact worker productivity, and there is growing concern about the economic toll that heat waves have on economies. Global average temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels for the first time in 2024, and new highs are forecast to be recorded over the next five years, according the World Meteorological Organization. Japan's legislation requires employers to implement protocols to quickly spot and aid workers showing symptoms of heatstroke. Policies encourage companies to use a buddy system at work sites, distribute wearable devices to monitor staff, and provide emergency transportation to hospitals or clinics. Employers are urged to monitor the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature index, a gauge of heat stress in direct sunlight that takes into account factors like temperature and humidity. Specific measures are required for work sites where the index value exceeds 28 C or an atmospheric temperature of 31 C for more than one hour, or for a total of four hours or more in a single day. A worker performing moderate work intensity loses half of their work capacity at 33 C to 34 C, according to a 2019 study from the International Labor Organization. The same report estimated the economic impact of heat stress by 2030 at $2.4 trillion if greenhouse gas emissions aren't cut. "We are working on measures such as taking breaks according to the heat index and measuring internal body temperature using wearable devices,' said a spokesperson for Shimizu, one of the nation's largest general contractors, which employs more than 20,000 people. The company said it is constantly updating its heatstroke policies. Parcel delivery service Yamato Transport plans to distribute 75,000 fan-equipped vests to workers, including those who use carts and bicycles to drop off packages. It is also installing 3,000 wet bulb index measuring devices at business locations to better track working conditions. The measures are not in response to the new law, the company said. California and Washington are among U.S. states to have developed similar rules on worker protections, and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed setting a federal standard. There were an average 40 recorded fatalities a year in the United States related to environmental heat between 2011 and 2020, according to the Department of Labor.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Met Office gives verdict on chance of summer heatwaves in UK
It is twice as likely that summer will be hot across the UK this year, the Met Office has predicted as the forecasting body also warned of an increased risk of heatwaves. The predictions come on the heels of the country's sunniest spring on record, with some 630 hours of sunshine clocked up across the country between March 1 and May 27, in what has also been the driest spring for more than a century. Temperatures soared to 8C above the average for the time of year on Saturday – the last day of meteorological spring – ahead of a potentially hot summer season. The Met Office 's three-month outlook predicts that the chance of a hot summer is higher than normal, bringing an increased risk of heatwaves and heat-related impacts. The outlook shows it is 2.3 times more likely than normal that the UK will be hot over meteorological summer, which begins on June 1 and ends August 31. The average temperatures across the UK over those months range from 10-17C, with the south east of England experiencing the higher averages of 16-17C. The summers of 2018 and 2021-2023 were also predicted to be hot, with data showing it has been a decade since the last time a summer was predicted to be cool, in 2015. The latest outlook also shows the levels of rainfall and wind speed for the next three months will likely be near average. The three-month long-range forecast does not identify weather for a specific day or week but gives an indication of possible temperature, rainfall and wind speed over the period as a whole.
Malay Mail
3 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
Forbes
4 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Youngest Generation Will Bear The Highest Brunt Of Climate Extremes: Study
In a 1.5 degrees Celsius warming scenario, 52% of people born in 2020 will be exposed to climate-change-induced extreme weather events throughout their lifetime, such as heatwaves and droughts, compared to only 16% of individuals born in 1960, according to a recent study. 'People born in 1960 and spending their life in Brussels are projected to experience three heatwaves in their lifetime. In the 1.5 °C pathway, the 2020 birth cohort is projected to experience nearly 11 heatwaves, yet this increases to 18 and 26 heatwaves in pathways reaching 2.5 °C and 3.5 °C, respectively, by the end of the century,' the researchers explained. 'More ambitious policies are needed to achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C by 2100 relative to the 2.7 °C warming expected under current policies, especially as the most vulnerable groups have more members projected to face unprecedented exposure to heatwaves. Children would reap the direct benefits of this increased ambition: a total of 613 million children born between 2003 and 2020 would then avoid unprecedented lifetime exposure to heatwaves,' the researchers added. Unprecedented lifetime exposure refers to less than one in 10,000 chance of being exposed to extreme weather events in a world that was not experiencing man-made climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas are the main cause of this man-made climate crisis. The researchers warn that if this harmful status quo of high levels of greenhouse gases continues, it might result in 111 million children from 177 countries born in 2020 being exposed to 'unprecedented heatwave exposure in a world that warms to 3.5 °C compared with 62 million in a 1.5 °C pathway.' "Socioeconomically vulnerable people have a consistently higher chance of facing unprecedented lifetime heatwave exposure compared with the least vulnerable members of their generation," they further highlighted. "Socioeconomically vulnerable groups have lower adaptive capacity and face more constraints when it comes to implementing effective adaptation measures. Our results highlight that precisely these groups with the highest socioeconomic vulnerability and lowest adaptation potential face the highest chance for unprecedented heatwave exposure." In the event that global warming increases by 3.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels instead of 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, the percentage of lifetime exposure to heatwaves will shoot up to 92% from 52% of people born in 2020. "Climate extremes also affect society through economic impacts, including the rising cost of living due to supply chain disruptions and taxation to recover public infrastructure. For instance, climate change endangers staple crop production in the main breadbasket countries that supply most of our caloric intake globally, forcing market instabilities that only the wealthiest can cope with. These missing non-local impacts make our estimates conservative," the researchers further warned. The study was published in the journal Nature on May 7, 2025.
