Heat waves kill people—and climate change is making it much, much worse
EnvironmentJul 02, 2021
On Monday, the UN and the Red Cross released their first ever joint report urging people and governments to better prepare for heat waves, such as those most recently seen in Sacramento, CA, Somalia, and Sichuan, China.
The report, released ahead of next month's UN COP27 climate change summit in Egypt, said heat waves are forecast to "exceed human physiological and social limits" in areas including the horn of Africa and south and southwest Asia. These extreme events will, the publication concludes, trigger "large-scale suffering and loss of life."
Deaths resulting from heat waves are just one of the many ways human-caused climate change is threatening human life. Climate change and extreme weather are no longer things we need to plan for, they are already affecting human health in dramatic ways. Individuals and governments must act now to stop deaths rising exponentially as extreme heat becomes more frequent across the globe.
The Earth has undoubtedly warmed moderately in recent years, but that has not led to a dangerous spike in heat waves. The frequency of heat waves has not increased as rapidly as many climate alarmists would have you think, and the US government's own data shows that neither drought, nor abnormally high temperatures, are any different today than over the past century.
There's a 23% chance that there will be a 3.6 degrees Celsius increase in global warming by 2100, according to the Metaculus prediction community.