#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].
Cool roofs as a disaster-resistance measure in extreme heat events.
"Regardless of the amount of energy savings, cool roofs and walls can increase the "hours of safety" provided by a home during extreme heat events... Extreme heat is the deadliest of all natural disasters and is predicted to increase in intensity and frequency. The benefit of cool roofs and walls to non-air-conditioned homes is clear (the interior of the home stays cooler and thus safer)... Cool roofs and walls can ease the strain on the system and, if A/C is lost, can improve the occupants’ ability to survive a heat wave." #DisasterPreparedness#ExtremeHeat#heatwaves#climate
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.
These global maps of heat deaths, heat death ratio, and heat death rates brings home how many of the deaths due to #ExtremeHeat go unreported in English-language media.
Who else is getting tired of the media showing people at the beach during unsurvivable 50°C heat events? Wtf on so many levels. Photos of empty beaches would be more representative of reality, or am I out to lunch? Would you go to the beach when it is an unimaginable 50°C?
Heat is making our planet uninhabitable. Why isn't this the top news story around the world?
Recent study finds that millions will be displaced as #ClimateChange makes their regions too hot to live
By Matthew Rozsa
Staff Writer
Published October 16, 2023
"In the 1973 sci-fi movie '#SoylentGreen,' the year 2022 is depicted as a world so ravaged by pollution that the temperature never drops below 90°F (32°C). Food is scarce; millions of people are homeless and crowd together in hallways just to sleep; the government has become overtly authoritarian. While things are not currently that bad (at least not yet), studies on climate change repeatedly indicate that the heat-based premise of 'Soylent Green' is rapidly becoming close to reality.
"Why is this not universally regarded as the biggest news story in the world?
"Consider a study published last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), which studied #Wetbulb temperatures (meaning the temperature measured by a wet thermometer in the shade as water evaporates off it). If wet bulb temperatures exceed 31°C (88°F), people cannot consistently perform physical labor without endangering their lives; in temperatures that exceed 35°C (95°F), a healthy human can die within a few hours without access to water or shelter. The authors of the PNAS study analyzed 'wet-bulb temperature thresholds across a range of air temperatures and relative humidities' using bias-corrected climate change models. Their conclusions were sobering...
"A study released this year found that extreme temperature shocks – like #heatwaves and cold snaps – are leading to surges in demand for #PaydayLoans in the #US.
The paper suggests extreme heat and cold may increase demand for payday loans in several ways: increased energy costs as people turn on heating or cooling devices, lost income or people who are unable to work in #ExtremeHeat, and health problems leading to medical costs for underinsured or uninsured people."
"While many might assume that California’s Death Valley is the hottest location on Earth, the area with the highest land surface temperature resides in #Iran’s uninhabitable #Lut Desert.
This remote desert region registered a peak of 70.5 degrees Celsius in 2005."
"Some 70% of the population — or nearly 50 million Iranians — might be ultimately forced to leave the country to survive."
Stunning set of charts showing why this year is breaking multiple temperature records:
Visualizing a summer of extremes in 7 charts
The past four months of 2023 have shattered all prior records by a truly staggering margin
Global surface temperatures have dramatically spiked since the start of June, with the past four months (June-September) breaking prior monthly records by a large margin.
This extreme global heat has made it virtually certain that 2023 will rank as the warmest year on record, and means that there is a chance it will emerge as the first year exceeding 1.5C above preindustrial levels – at least in some datasets.
Birds drop from trees as temperatures soar in outback
One of #Australia's hottest towns has sweltered through a brutal four-week stretch of daily maximum temperatures above 41C that has caused #birds to fall from trees
"In the 1980s, a disaster causing at least $1 billion in damage hit the U.S. about every three months; now they happen about every three weeks.
Most of this year’s events involved #SevereWeather.
One major type of disaster that is missing from any year in NOAA’s tracking is #ExtremeHeat. Another missing phenomenon is #WildfireSmoke."
Climate action is not expensive.
Doing nothing is expensive.
"The #climate crisis could cause up to 10,000 extra deaths in the #UK every year by the 2050s as a result of #ExtremeHeat and a host of tropical diseases, a stark report has warned."
Heat is a #SilentKiller, and many cities are realising that #Climate preparedness must include #heat resilience. But
"Opening #CoolingCenters during a #heatwave might not be enough to prevent unnecessary deaths if people don't think they need to go. More effective #communication is one critical tool for reducing the harmful consequences of #ExtremeHeat on human health."
Climate Change poses a significant threat to individuals with brain conditions.
Extreme temperatures, poor sleep due to warmer nights, and adverse weather events can worsen neurological and psychiatric disorders, increasing hospitalizations and mortality.