The Heat to Come

 

A new report by the United Nations and the Red Cross has warned heat waves will become so extreme in parts of Africa and Asia within decades that human life there will be unsustainable. The effects of recurrent heatwaves would include “large scale suffering and loss of life”, population movements and increased inequality, the report warned, adding that these trends were “already emerging”.

The study, "Extreme Heat: Preparing for the Heatwaves of the Future", said that 38 heatwaves accounted for the deaths of more than 70,000 people worldwide from 2010 to 2019 – a likely underestimate of the real toll. That figure made up more than one-sixth of the more than 410,000 deaths from disasters linked to extreme climate and weather over the same period.

 The report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Red Cross said, “On current trajectories, heatwaves could meet and exceed these physiological and social limits in the coming decades, including in regions such as the Sahel, and South and South-West Asia.” 

“Heatwaves account for some of the deadliest disasters on record,” Martin Griffiths, who heads OCHA, explained. “Devastating droughts like the one pushing Somalia to the brink of famine are made far deadlier when they combine with extreme heat. We can expect more of these in the future.” 

Griffiths added, “It’s grossly unjust that fragile countries must bear deadly loss and damage from extreme heat when they are unambiguously and clearly and evidently the least responsible for climate change. Wealthier countries have the resources to help their people adapt and have made promises to do so. Poorer countries who are not responsible for these torturous heatwaves do not have those resources.”

Future heatwaves will lead to large ‘loss of life’, report warns | Climate Crisis News | Al Jazeera