{"id":78049,"date":"2024-06-21T12:04:13","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T12:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/21\/well-beyond-the-u-s-heat-and-climate-extremes-are-hitting-billions\/"},"modified":"2024-06-21T12:04:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T12:04:14","slug":"well-beyond-the-u-s-heat-and-climate-extremes-are-hitting-billions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/21\/well-beyond-the-u-s-heat-and-climate-extremes-are-hitting-billions\/","title":{"rendered":"Well Beyond the U.S., Heat and Climate Extremes Are Hitting Billions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/20\/multimedia\/20CLI-globalheat-jgwt\/20CLI-globalheat-jgwt-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Well Beyond the U.S., Heat and Climate Extremes Are Hitting Billions\" title=\"Well Beyond the U.S., Heat and Climate Extremes Are Hitting Billions\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Poll workers. Pilgrims. Tourists on a hike.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">All have died in blistering heat in recent weeks around the world, a harrowing reminder of the global dangers of extreme weather as a severe heat wave bears down on more than 70 million Americans this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dozens of cities in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/americas\/experts-warn-hail-whirlwinds-mexico-after-new-heat-record-capital-2024-05-26\/#:~:text=At%20least%20a%20dozen%20cities,to%20the%20Ministry%20of%20Health.\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Mexico broke heat records<\/a> in May and June, killing more than 100 people. India has been under an extraordinarily long heat wave that killed several election workers, and this week, in the capital, Delhi, even <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Indiametdept\/status\/1803501131466940640\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">overnight temperatures<\/a> remained in the mid-90s Fahrenheit, or in the mid-30s Celsius. Greece is bracing for wildfires this week, right after back-to-back heat waves <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/16\/world\/europe\/greece-heat-wave-hikers.html?searchResultPosition=1\" title=\"\">killed several tourists.<\/a> In Bamako, the capital of Mali, hospitals reported <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/laborers-street-vendors-mali-no-060718583.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">more than 100 excess deaths<\/a> on the first four days of April, The Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Between May 2023 and May 2024, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.climatecentral.org\/report\/climate-change-and-the-escalation-of-global-extreme-heat\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">an estimated 6.3 billion people<\/a>, or roughly 4 out of 5 people in the world, lived through at least a month of what in their areas were considered abnormally high temperatures, according to a recent analysis by Climate Central, a scientific nonprofit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The damage to human health, agriculture and the global economy is just beginning to be understood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Extreme heat killed an <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/library.wmo.int\/viewer\/68500\/download?file=1335_WMO-Climate-services-Health_en.pdf&amp;type=pdf&amp;navigator=1\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">estimated 489,000 people<\/a> annually between 2000 and 2019, according to the World Meteorological Organization, making heat the deadliest of all extreme weather events. Swiss RE, the insurance-industry giant, said in a report this week that the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swissre.com\/institute\/research\/sonar\/sonar2024.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">accumulating hazards<\/a> of climate change could further drive the growing market for insurance against strikes and riots. \u201cClimate change may also drive food and water shortages and in turn civil unrest, and mass migration,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As for the world\u2019s two rival economic powers, China and the United States, both face a common peril this summer. As one-fifth of all Americans were under an extreme-heat alert this week, several areas in China\u2019s north broke maximum temperature records. And earlier in the week the capital, Beijing, was under a heat alert as temperatures reached 99 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius).<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The two countries are also the two biggest producers of greenhouse gases warming the planet. China\u2019s current emissions are by far the highest in the world, and the United States\u2019 cumulative emissions over the past 150 years of industrialization are the highest in the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Emissions like these, produced by the burning of fossil fuels, are what drive these bouts of abnormally high temperatures, scientists have repeatedly found. \u201cUnsurprisingly, heat waves are getting deadlier,\u201d said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College in London, in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Global temperatures <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncei.noaa.gov\/access\/monitoring\/monthly-report\/global\/202405\/supplemental\/page-1\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">in the first five months of the year<\/a> have been the highest since modern record-keeping began. That puts 2024 on course to be the hottest year in recorded history, eclipsing last year\u2019s record.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Saudi Arabia, a petrostate that has opposed diplomatic efforts to phase out fossil-fuel use, experienced a harrowing event this week. Agence France-Presse reported Thursday that <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/live-news\/20240620-death-toll-tops-1-000-after-hajj-marked-by-extreme-heat-afp-tally\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">1,000 people<\/a> had died while on the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy city in Saudi Arabia. In central Algeria, another oil-rich state, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/algeria-drought-rain-tebboune-tiaret-riots-09ce23f4ba235aaf1e3afecc7bfe3574\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">riots erupted over water<\/a> in mid-June as rising temperatures and a lack of rain dried up drinking-water supplies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Doctors around the world have increasingly pointed to heat\u2019s often underappreciated effect on health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many hospital systems have no adequate way to count heat illnesses or deaths because heat can aggravate <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/detail\/climate-change-heat-and-health#:~:text=Heat%20stress%20is%20the%20leading,transmission%20of%20some%20infectious%20diseases.\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a host of other conditions<\/a>, like kidney disease or asthma, which means that deaths due to heat sometimes end up attributed to other causes and show up as a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/18\/climate\/long-heat-waves-health-risk.html\" title=\"\">pattern of excess deaths<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cA transition away from fossil fuels is the best way to prevent deaths and illness from heat in the future \u2014 everything else is just a Band-Aid on a bullet wound,\u201d said Renee Salas, an emergency-room doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital and the lead author of a special issue of The Lancet, the medical journal, on climate change and health.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Heat isn\u2019t the only extreme weather hazard affecting the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">High temperatures dried out soils in China\u2019s northern agricultural provinces, prompting emergency-response measures against an expanding drought, including cloud-seeding operations to cause rain. Meanwhile, heavy rains inundated the country\u2019s south, with landslides blocking roads and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/18\/world\/asia\/china-landslides-floods.html\" title=\"\">power outages affecting 100,000<\/a> households.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the United States, New Mexico\u2019s weather went from fires to floods in the course of a week. Roughly 23,000 acres have burned in southern New Mexico since two fast-moving wildfires were detected Monday. At least two people have died. Then, on Wednesday came torrential rains and floods rushing down burn-scarred hillsides.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last week, three days of tropical rains in Florida wreaked havoc on airports and highways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Thursday, the Atlantic hurricane season\u2019s first named storm, Alberto, barreled into the northeastern coast of Mexico. Amid the lashing wind and rain, three children were killed, local officials said. One drowned trying to rescue a ball in a fast-moving river. Two others were electrocuted when a cable made contact with a pond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The hurricane season is <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.noaa.gov\/news-release\/noaa-predicts-above-normal-2024-atlantic-hurricane-season#:~:text=The%20upcoming%20Atlantic%20hurricane%20season,which%20tend%20to%20favor%20tropical\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">projected to be unusually strong this year<\/a>, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, because the ocean is extraordinarily hot. That, too, is in part because of the burning of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">John Liu contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/21\/climate\/heat-deaths-floods-drought.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Poll workers. Pilgrims. Tourists on a hike. All have died in blistering heat in recent weeks around the world, a harrowing reminder of the global dangers of extreme weather as a severe heat wave bears down on more than 70 million Americans this week. Dozens of cities in Mexico broke heat records in May and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/20\/multimedia\/20CLI-globalheat-jgwt\/20CLI-globalheat-jgwt-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[356,486,17117,1029,5809,221],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78051,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78049\/revisions\/78051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}