“Record-breaking temperatures in the last few years shatter the myth that air conditioning alone will keep people safe.”
“Storm-battered homes … lack proper insulation. Power grids stumble & fail during periods of high demand. And many cooling systems are simply not powerful enough to contend with the worsening heat. Some experts have begun to warn of the looming threat of a 'Heat Katrina' – a mass-casualty heat event.“
A streak of record-setting #heat that began last summer has now persisted for an entire year across the globe, researchers announced Wed, pushing #Earth closer to a dangerous threshold that the #world’s nations had pledged not to cross.
Temperatures surpassed the 1.5°C #warming threshold over the past year, & scientists warn they will again soon.
"Searing heat and fire danger will quickly ramp up in #California and the West this week as a summerlike #HeatDome parks over the region. Thermometers will top triple digits for the first time this year in some locations as the early season heat wave sends daily records tumbling."
" The searing heat has already taken its toll. Since last weekend, multiple people in different parts of the US have died or have been hospitalized due to heat-related illnesses.
The worst of the #heat peaked Thursday for much of #California and the #Southwest, but unseasonably hot conditions will stick around in these areas and expand into the Pacific Northwest at least through the weekend. "
"A brutal #heatwave swept swathes of northwest #India on Friday, with maximum temperatures soaring to a scorching 47.4 degrees Celsius in southwest #Delhi's Najafgarh, making it the warmest place in the country."
"At least 85 people died of suspected heat stress and related issues in Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, [#India] in 24 hours, senior officials in these regions said on Friday, amid an unforgiving #heat spell that has pushed temperatures to unprecedented levels in many of these regions. "
"Sizzling #heat across Asia and the Middle East in late April that echoed last year's destructive swelter was made 45 times more likely in some parts of the continent because of human-caused #ClimateChange, a study Tuesday found. "
"Ten cities in #Mexico have registered record-high temperatures, including the capital, authorities said on Friday, amid a searing #heatwave that has prompted blackouts nationwide and pushed the power grid to the brink."
"Threatened howler monkeys have been dropping dead from trees in #Mexico’s southeastern tropical forests in recent weeks.
The country has been grappling with soaring and deadly temperatures for weeks. Mexico’s health ministry reported a preliminary count of 26 people who have died from #heat related causes between the start of Mexico’s heat season on March 17 and May 11."
"Earth has just experienced its 11th straight warmest month on record -- a preview of the brutal temperatures forecast for the summer, according to scientists."
ABC News reports: "May 2023 through April 2024 was the warmest 12-month stretch on record with a global average temperature of 2.90 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1850 to 1900 pre-industrial average."
" Current summer temperature outlooks for the US are certainly bringing the #heat. Above-average temperatures are forecast over nearly every square mile of the Lower 48.
“We anticipate a well above-average probability for major #hurricanes making landfall along the continental #UnitedStates coastline and in the #Caribbean,” the group said in a news release."
Forget red-hot. In the United States the CDC and National Weather Service have introduced a color-coded heat risk system to warn Americans about heat danger, with magenta representing the most dangerous level.
FYI: There are five #heat threat categories, ranging from pale green (little to no risk) to magenta (deadliest risk), based on strict scientific thresholds.
"Since the start of this year, Africa’s most populous nation #Nigeria has faced prolonged stretches of severe #heat.
With records of heat and its impacts lacking in Nigeria, Carbon Brief speaks to doctors, farmers and meteorologists about how this episode of #ExtremeWeather is affecting the country."
The #ClimateCrisis is not only altering our #environment, but our brains. New studies indicate the negative neurological effects of #heat, #pollution, and the stress of surviving extreme #weather events.
These factors shape our wetware even before we're born. Kids in utero during Hurricane Sandy showed a 20- to 60-fold risk increase for some #MentalHealth conditions.
Social equality suffers, too. Temperatures above 32C reduce cognitive performance and heighten aggression. Researchers estimate this could account for disparities in school achievement gaps and violent crime rates.
Think it's "all in your head"? Researchers investigating links between urban air pollution and neurodegeneration found physical markers of Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of 99.5% of participants, aged 11 months to 40 years.
Heat pumps are a highly efficient and mature technology for home heating (incl. in my house).
"Yet, in major economies such as the UK and Germany, heat pumps are the subject of hostile and misleading reporting across many mainstream media outlets."
Not least due to disinformation spread by fossil fuel interests.
Before you get duped, read the fact check.
@rahmstorf From what i know, it depends on the house weather or not #heat-pumps are cost competitive to other sources like gas (as #Germany and the #UK are among the countries with the highest electricity prices in the world).
I am definitely for electrification but there are cases where it might be more environmental friendly not to replace and as long as the electricity production is not completely renewable a certain % of #electricity will sadly still come from #gas-power-plants.
Extreme heat waves are already here, and they are killing tens of thousands of people. Blasting through 2 degrees Celsius of warming means they’ll happen many times more frequently.
Some good news - "‘We don’t need air con’: how #BurkinaFaso builds #schools that stay cool in 40C #heat" - Architects use local materials and merge traditional techniques with modern technology to make schools and orphanages cool, welcoming places.
The Noomdo orphanage was another of his projects. “The Kéré building provides us with good thermal comfort because when it’s hot, we’re cool, and when it’s cold, we’re warm inside,” says Pierre Sanou, a social educator at the orphanage near the city of Koudougou in the Centre-Ouest (centre-west) region of Burkina Faso. “We don’t need air conditioning, which is an incredible energy saving,” says Sanou. Temperatures in this region of the world remain at about 40C (104F) during the hottest season.
“Kéré builds with local materials from our territory like laterite stone and uses very little concrete,” says Sanou. Kéré’s buildings in Burkina Faso are earthy. They start from the ground and take into account that concrete is a material that needs to be transported to the site, is much more expensive and generates waste. “They are permeable buildings that seek the movement of natural air and protection from the sun. For example, they are built with very strong walls and very light roofs so that the cool air that enters from below pushes the hot air out from above,” says Eduardo González, a member of the Architecture School of Madrid.
One particularly ingenious innovation is his use of the ancient idea of raised and extended metal roofs. The rooms of Noomdo are covered by a shallow barrel vault resting on a concrete beam but with openings. Above, a metal plate protects the roof from direct sunlight and rain. Additionally, it lets out the hot air. González says the technique can be found in the vernacular architecture of the Persian Gulf. In Burkina Faso, he says Kéré integrates it into his projects and “gives this technique a contemporary image”."
#Florida#Republicans are busy trying to eliminate lifesaving heat safety regulations for outdoor workers, as the state faces record-setting heat waves.
Local rules mandating shade breaks, onsite water, and other protections will all go away, leading to increased worker deaths if the "pro-life" state #GOP gets its way.
Okay so this piece contains a map of fatalities from: drought, wildfire, storm, landslide and flood.
What happened to "heat"?
Last year #heatwaves killed nearly 62,000 in #Europe.
Erasing heat deaths in #Africa is - shall we be charitable - irresponsible at best.
If you don't count it, you can't work to prevent it. But #HeatDeaths are notoriously hard to count.
"#Heat is not commonly mentioned on #DeathCertificates because heat alone is rarely the main thing that kills people.
[In Maricopa County] they coined the term "environmental heat exposure" to encapsulate heat related factors that contributed to someone's death without necessarily being the primary driver."
#ExtremeHeat Is Endangering America's Workers—and Its Economy
"Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C., based consumer rights advocacy group, estimates that extreme heat contributes to between 600 and 2,000 deaths a year, along with 170,000 injuries, making heat one of the three main causes of death and injury in the American #workplace.
In most American states, you can be fined for leaving a dog outside without water or shade."
[Workers don't have such protection].
"In 2021, after years of worker activism on the issue, OSHA began the process of developing a ruling on a #heat workplace standard, with the aim to reduce heat-related injuries and death on the job.
Historically, some employers and business groups have opposed a mandatory #HeatStandard and have lobbied against it in the past. And if Donald Trump wins the presidency, it would likely upend the standard entirely."
"Yesterday, #California regulators voted to establish #heat protections for indoor workers for the first time.
#Florida proactively passed legislation that would block any future local #HeatProtections for workers, and #Texas passed a law to eliminate the bare minimum form of protection, mandated water breaks for construction workers.
Most states, though, simply have no laws on the books to address the risk of work-related heat illness."