Climate: so extreme heatwaves are causing an increase in deaths
The steadily rising temperatures represent “a clear and growing health problem,” as a new study explains Global Burden of Disease, also published in the scientific journal “The Lancet”.
In 2019 alone, there were more than 356,000 heat-related deaths and this figure is expected to increase as temperatures rise worldwide. Researchers also estimate 1.3 million extreme cold-related deaths in 2019.
In most places, cold temperatures have been linked to more deaths than heat, but the increase in deaths from extreme cold is calculated to be 31% since 1990.
While heat-attributable deaths during the study period increased by 74%, suggesting a consistent rise in mortality.
Scientists are sounding the alarm mainly because, they warn, “many heat-related deaths can be prevented by mitigating climate change and reducing exposure to extreme heat. optimal at 17 specific causes of disease and highlights the relevance of cardiorespiratory and metabolic mortality, as well as external causes of death such as interpersonal violence, self-harm, drowning, injury. The authors note that the work is based on mortality data from 9 countries and that global estimates could underestimate the impact of extreme temperatures in places with higher temperature sensitivity and overestimate them in places with lower sensitivity. Furthermore, data was not available for some areas such as Europe or South and Southeast Asia and they included only one country in sub-Saharan Africa.
A “mitigation is needed to help prevent further warming” of the planet. “Even with strategies in place to slow climate change, global temperatures will continue to rise and environmentally sustainable changes in individual behavior and the built environment are urgently needed to adapt to an increasingly hot world. Extreme heat is always an event. most common worldwide “.
The authors recommend “immediate and urgent globally coordinated efforts to mitigate climate change and increase resilience to extreme heat, and save lives by protecting the most vulnerable. In line with the Paris Agreement, the authors call for global warming is limited to 1.5 ° C to avoid substantial heat-related mortality in the future. ” Reducing the health impacts of extreme heat, they conclude, “is an urgent priority and should include immediate changes to infrastructure, the urban environment and individual behavior.”
The series is released ahead of the UN COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, UK. Effective and environmentally sustainable cooling measures can protect against the worst health impacts of heat is the message.
These interventions range “from increasing green space in cities, to wall coverings that reflect the heat of buildings and the widespread use of electric fans and other widely available individual cooling techniques” to help people regulate body temperature. “As air conditioning is becoming increasingly widely available around the world, it is inaccessible to many of the most vulnerable, is costly and environmentally expensive, and leaves many defenseless against extreme heat during power outages.”
“Two strategic approaches are needed to combat extreme heat – concludes Kristie Ebi of the University of Washington, United States, co-author of the series – One is climate change mitigation to reduce carbon emissions. The other is to ‘ identify timely and effective prevention and response measures, particularly for low-resource settings. With more than half of the global population expected to be exposed to weeks of dangerous heat each year by the end of this century, we need to find ways to ‘ cooling people effectively and sustainably “.