Killer Heat – Fires, Droughts & Diseases

Killer Heat – Fires, Droughts & Diseases: Surpassing 1.5°C in January was dire but even worse, year-to-date global warming has now reached an alarming 1.64°C in July 2024. And people are dying from the heat but also wildfires, diseases and more that come with a heating planet.

Given this danger, this month we share five ways heat can kill, get the latest developments on wildfires, deep dive into the repercussions for human health from hotter temperatures and unpack how our cooling habit is warming the planet.

It’s hot, it’s bad and it’s here to stay, killer heat has arrived. It claims nearly half a million lives each year and last year in the US, heat had contributed to 2,300 deaths – more than any other natural disaster in the country.

But how does heat kill? We share 5 ways – some are more obvious like wildfires, droughts and our bodies’ vulnerability to heat & dehydration, as well as some that are less obvious like emerging pathogenic diseases and not climate-ready infrastructure. Be sure to check them out to know what to look out for – like the wet bulb measurement, “heatflation”, food insecurity & more.

This time last year, unprecedented heat helped fuel wildfires in Hawaii – among other locations – which ultimately burned down the historic town of Lahaina. And just last month, similar conditions facilitated fires that wiped out half of Jasper National Park in Canada.

Alarmingly, scientists have found that wildfires have doubled in frequency and intensity over the past two decades. Why is this? We spoke with Jed O. Kaplan, Professor at the University of Calgary, to learn more about this, the three key ingredients for wildfires and how global warming is changing their behaviours and frequency.

Kaplan also explains that while current predictive models help us explore various management practices and scenarios that might lead to a wildfire, climate change is taking us outside the envelope of a climate that made those systems appropriate in the past, making them no longer viable. Plus, see where Hong Kong stands in all of this.

Another area being pushed out of the envelope by climate change is human health. As Jack Marley, Environment & Energy Editor (UK edition) of The Conversation says, “Earth’s growing fever has obvious repercussions for human health, like heatwaves that are hotter than our physiology can tolerate… it will yield surprises, too, though.”

What should we be worried about? How is climate change changing the global transmission of >20 tropical diseases? How much more of the population could be vulnerable to Malaria? Are our brains at risk? Marley answers these questions and more. Plus, see why he says a new conception of health is urgently needed – especially with more close contact with animals.

When it’s hot there’s nothing better than turning on the aircon (AC) to cool down. And as it gets hotter and hotter, many of us are guilty of switching the AC on more frequently and for longer. Nowadays, space-cooling accounts for sizable amounts of energy consumption around the world. In Saudi Arabia, ACs alone account for 70% of electricity demand.

The issue with using this equipment goes beyond surging energy bills to the soaring GHG emissions that come from powering it. Between now and 2050, the installed capacity of cooling equipment is expected to triple, potentially doubling electricity consumption. With most cooling systems powered by fossil fuel-electricity we are actually heating the planet up while we are cooling down. Find out more and what you can do to help.

Heat is killing us already and it’s only going to get worse as we track a +3ºC emissions pathway. Even the polar regions like Antarctica are experiencing 28°C above normal temperatures.

Rapid and deep cuts are the only way we can rein in killer heat and with it prevent the unleashing of other catastrophic climate impacts like multi-meter sea level rise.

A couple months back we deep dived into the impacts of sea level rise on top tanker terminals, but what about coastal power that’s just as vulnerable? Tune in next month to find out and in the meantime, stay safe against the killer heat.