The topic for this Thursday’s KTK is heatwaves and if you have been impacted by the record breaking temperatures over the last week.
The World Meteorological Organization has said that heat now kills more people than any other extreme-weather hazard and has called for many more “tailored climate products and services” to protect people’s health, including easy-to-use tools to find help. www.nytimes.com/...
As the horror of 1300+ people dying in 100 degree temperatures at the recent Hajj in Mecca, the NYT reports that “crowd control and heat waves fueled by climate change are on a dangerous collision course.”
During India’s recent election, dozens of poll workers died on the job. Last summer, troops of Boy Scouts visiting South Korea for a jubilee became sick from heat, as did others at music festivals in Australia, Europe and North America.
Even as heat kills more people today than any other extreme weather event, there is still a dangerous cultural lag. Many major-event organizers and attendees are still behind the climate curve, failing to contend with just how much a warming planet has elevated the risk to summer crowds.
“As the warm seasons get longer, as the heat waves come earlier, we’re going to have to adapt,” said Benjamin Zaitchik, a climate scientist at Johns Hopkins University who studies health-damaging climate events. Along with personal behavior, he added, infrastructure, emergency management and social calendars must “really acknowledge this new reality.”
CNBC reports that travelers underestimate the risk of elevated temperatures and urge visitors to avoid crowds, to change timing of visiting peak attractions, to remain hydrated, and to wear lose clothing.
Extreme Global, a cellphone app which operates in parts of Europe, provides color-coded details of heat risk and populates a map to guide users to local places they can visit to cool down. These range from pools, air-conditioned public buildings, parks, and fountains. Three options are provided when you decide where you want to go: “the fastest route, the coolest route and the coolest route with places to rest.”
Here in the US, 100 million people were ravaged by heat for over seven days as huge swathes of the country wilted under record breaking high temperatures.
The National Weather Service and the CDC determined that in New York City “and cities including Indianapolis and Cincinnati, residents faced the highest level of health risk from the heat, “ They use the HeatRisk, measuring device which calculates such factors as how long a heatwave lasts and how unusual the condition is at that time of year. Last week, CDC data revealed regions in the Northeast and the Midwest experienced a spike in heat-related illnesses.
Science educator Bill Nye said that extreme weather and record-breaking heat can be the start of a “new normal.”
Nye made an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” to discuss the latest heat wave that has blistered many parts of the United States in recent days. Host Martha Raddatz asked if this sort of heat may become the “new normal.”
“It’s the beginning of the new normal, with respect. So the latest — the latest research is that there’s not a turning point or a tipping point or a knee in the curve. It’s just going to get hotter and hotter and worse and worse and more and more extreme,” he said. www.yahoo.com/...
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