Global Heat and Climate Extremes Endanger Billions

[Social Media]

 

Across the globe, people are facing severe heat, floods, and fires, exacerbated by the persistent use of fossil fuels. The year isn’t halfway done, yet the impact is already devastating. In recent weeks, poll workers, pilgrims, and tourists on hikes have succumbed to the blistering heat. This serves as a stark reminder of the global dangers posed by extreme weather, as a heatwave now bears down on nearly 100 million Americans.

 

Mexico saw dozens of cities break heat records in May and June, resulting in more than 100 deaths. India is enduring an extraordinarily long heatwave that has claimed the lives of several election workers. In Delhi, even overnight temperatures remain in the mid-90s Fahrenheit (mid-30s Celsius). Greece is bracing for wildfires after consecutive heatwaves killed several tourists. In Bamako, Mali’s capital, hospitals reported over 100 excess deaths in the first four days of April.

 

Between May 2023 and May 2024, an estimated 6.3 billion people, or roughly four out of five worldwide, experienced at least a month of abnormally high temperatures in their regions, according to Climate Central, a scientific nonprofit.

 

The full extent of the damage to human health, agriculture, and the global economy is only beginning to be understood. Extreme heat killed an estimated 489,000 people annually between 2000 and 2019, according to the World Meteorological Organization, making heat the deadliest of all extreme weather events. Swiss RE, the insurance-industry giant, recently reported that the accumulating hazards of climate change could drive the growing market for insurance against strikes and riots. "Climate change may also drive food and water shortages and in turn civil unrest, and mass migration," the report said.

 

Both China and the United States, the world’s two rival economic powers, face a common peril this summer. As one-fifth of all Americans were under an extreme-heat alert, several areas in northern China broke maximum temperature records. Earlier in the week, Beijing faced a heat alert with temperatures reaching 99 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius).

 

The two countries are also the largest producers of greenhouse gases. China’s current emissions are the highest globally, and the United States has the highest cumulative emissions over the past 150 years. These emissions, resulting from fossil fuel burning, drive bouts of abnormally high temperatures. "Unsurprisingly, heat waves are getting deadlier," said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College in London.

 

Global temperatures in the first five months of the year have been the highest since modern record-keeping began, potentially making 2024 the hottest year in recorded history. Saudi Arabia experienced a tragic event when 1,000 people died during the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, as reported by Agence France-Presse. In central Algeria, riots erupted over water shortages in mid-June due to rising temperatures and a lack of rain.

 

Doctors worldwide have increasingly highlighted heat’s often underappreciated effect on health. Many hospital systems lack adequate methods to count heat-related illnesses or deaths, as heat can aggravate conditions like kidney disease or asthma. Consequently, deaths due to heat are sometimes attributed to other causes, appearing as a pattern of excess deaths. "A transition away from fossil fuels is the best way to prevent deaths and illness from heat in the future—everything else is just a Band-Aid on a bullet wound," said Renee Salas, an emergency-room doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

 

Heat isn’t the only extreme weather hazard affecting the world. In China’s northern agricultural provinces, high temperatures have dried out soils, prompting emergency-response measures against an expanding drought, including cloud-seeding operations. Meanwhile, heavy rains have inundated southern China, causing landslides, road blockages, and power outages affecting 100,000 households.

 

In the United States, New Mexico experienced fires and floods within a week. Roughly 23,000 acres burned in southern New Mexico due to fast-moving wildfires, claiming at least two lives. Then, torrential rains and floods rushed down burn-scarred hillsides. In Florida, three days of tropical rains wreaked havoc on airports and highways.

 

On Thursday, the Atlantic hurricane season’s first named storm, Alberto, hit the northeastern coast of Mexico, resulting in three child fatalities. One child drowned trying to rescue a ball in a fast-moving river, and two others were electrocuted when a cable made contact with a pond. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects an unusually strong hurricane season due to the extraordinarily hot ocean, a result of fossil fuel burning.

 

Credit: New York Times 2024-06-24

 

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[Skipalongcassidy]

ADAPT or die... at this time of year I play golf in the morning instead of the afternoon... it isn't rocket science.

[impulse]

When I was growing up, we called that "summer". 

 

Some years, it killed millions and parched the fields.  Just like it's been doing since the last ice age.  Long before Henry Ford and J D Rockefeller.

 

 

[Cryingdick]

I noticed lately the weather people use the "heat index" to make the temps seem higher. In the winter they also commonly display the wind chill index as if it is the actual temperatures. When i was a kid the index was called Fahrenheit.

 

The  heat here doesn't even beat records going back 10 or 20 years. Wake me up when you get a recorded temperature of around 111 in the summer and -60 in the winter somewhere like Minnesota. That's how it was when i grew up.

[novacova]

Climate fluctuations have been going on for eons, nothing has changed except for human hysterics and gimmicks 

[JonnyF]

Climate alarmism is the politics of fear.

 

Terrify people into handing over their cash and their freedoms. "Global warming provides a marvellous opportunity for global socialism". Margaret Thatcher. 

 

Shameful hysteria from the left. 

[300sd]

The climate agenda has nothing to do with the climate. Vivek Ramaswamy

[thaibeachlovers]

7 hours ago, Social Media said:

he two countries are also the largest producers of greenhouse gases. China’s current emissions are the highest globally, and the United States has the highest cumulative emissions over the past 150 years. These emissions, resulting from fossil fuel burning, drive bouts of abnormally high temperatures. "Unsurprisingly, heat waves are getting deadlier," said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College in London.

As usual from the pro man made climate change side, long on blame and somewhat short on solutions.

 

Constant moaning about fossil fueled vehicles, but no suggestion how to replace the millions of diesel powered machines that enable 8 billion people to survive.

[Yellowtail]

[Yellowtail]

I wonder when all the protestors work...

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, Yellowtail said:

I wonder when all the protestors work...

They probably get the dole and in NZ the schools allow students to go on protests instead of learning stuff.

[Yellowtail]

13 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

They probably get the dole and in NZ the schools allow students to go on protests instead of learning stuff.

Yeah, in the US they mostly have rich parents, and the leftist teachers give them extra credit to protest. 

 

Then after they get a useless $200K degree in gender studies the get a $100K a year job on the public teat, and then the left "forgives" their loan, and they're still protesting. 

[JCauto]

Wow, what a conclave of ASEAN Now's top scientific minds!

Let me quickly contact the UNFCCC to let them know there's an important discussion going on that they really need to pay attention to. After all, there's been a dearth of cases for the AN Detectives to work on, so they're going back to one of their old staples, climate science. Can't wait for Bird Flu to start up and see them putting their White Lab Coats on as they move swiftly into expertise on epidemiology. 

Seriously, has a single one of you had the slightest bit of training or experience in science or engineering? Thought so.

[JonnyF]

49 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Then after they get a useless $200K degree in gender studies the get a $100K a year job on the public teat

 

Or a job as a DEI officer at the BBC...

[Yellowtail]

3 minutes ago, JCauto said:

Wow, what a conclave of ASEAN Now's top scientific minds!

Let me quickly contact the UNFCCC to let them know there's an important discussion going on that they really need to pay attention to. After all, there's been a dearth of cases for the AN Detectives to work on, so they're going back to one of their old staples, climate science. Can't wait for Bird Flu to start up and see them putting their White Lab Coats on as they move swiftly into expertise on epidemiology. 

Seriously, has a single one of you had the slightest bit of training or experience in science or engineering? Thought so.

Thought wrong. 

[Yellowtail]

2 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

 

Or a job as a DEI officer at the BBC...

Indeed

[JCauto]

24 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Thought wrong. 

 

There's training, then there's understanding what you have been taught. They're not the same.

 

So do you believe that there is a global conspiracy amongst the millions of people working in climate science and related fields? Do you accept the overwhelming consensus of those scientists and engineers that the world temperatures are increasing as the result of anthropomorphic causes? 

Or do you have an alternative theory for us based on your knowledge and experience of the sciences and engineering? Don't be coy! Spill the beans!

[Purdey]

I expect more people to say the heat is normal for summer in the face of evidence that it is not normal.

Let's see.

[Yellowtail]

8 minutes ago, JCauto said:

There's training, then there's understanding what you have been taught. They're not the same.

Do you think the average person does not know that? 

8 minutes ago, JCauto said:

So do you believe that there is a global conspiracy amongst the millions of people working in climate science and related fields?

No, do you? 

8 minutes ago, JCauto said:

Do you accept the overwhelming consensus of those scientists and engineers that the world temperatures are increasing as the result of anthropomorphic causes? 

I do not accept anything I am unable to review. I know that the often cited 93% of climate scientists agree thing was a lie.

 

I believe that the world is generally getting warmer, and that anthropomorphic impacts it.

 

8 minutes ago, JCauto said:

Or do you have an alternative theory for us based on your knowledge and experience of the sciences and engineering? Don't be coy! Spill the beans!

An alternative to what? You've not presented much less supported such a theory. 

 

What do you do for a living? 

[Yellowtail]

6 minutes ago, Purdey said:

I expect more people to say the heat is normal for summer in the face of evidence that it is not normal.

Let's see.

How much would the Earth have to warm for it to really be noticeable? 

Climate Change Over the Last 100 Years (archives.gov)

[milesinnz]

why don't they make an issue out of population explosions, because guess what, more people = more emissions.. Africa population 1990 = 816 million, 2016 = 1,200 million, by 2050 will be 2,500 million (same applies to the Middle East - hence a source of conflict - ... and lets talk about the emissions from rice - yes, that's right.. Of course they won't talk about these real issues because it does not involve evil white people who drive cars and fly aircraft.. and on that subject 3% of climate changing emissions come from aviation.. 8% from cement.. so better stop constructing infrastructure to cope with all these population explosions..

[koolkarl]

The airhead college anti Israel protestors are protesting the wrong group.  Big oil apparently has been paying off politicians for decades and now it is Earth's payback time.

[Thingamabob]

1 hour ago, Purdey said:

I expect more people to say the heat is normal for summer in the face of evidence that it is not normal.

Let's see.

A lurid report recently stated that temperatures in Saudi Arabia were 'now reaching 50C'. I lived and worked in Riyadh 40 years ago and the temperature regularly reached 50C at that time.

[JCauto]

2 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Do you think the average person does not know that? 

No, do you? 

I do not accept anything I am unable to review. I know that the often cited 93% of climate scientists agree thing was a lie.

 

I believe that the world is generally getting warmer, and that anthropomorphic impacts it.

 

An alternative to what? You've not presented much less supported such a theory. 

 

What do you do for a living? 

 

Hard to respond the way the post gets broken up, but I'll try to do so to the questions you asked.

 

"Does the average person not know that?" - I have found myself amazed at how much the average person doesn't know, my experience has taught me to no longer assume that they have even a basic foundation of knowledge. 

"I don't accept anything I am unable to review" - well, in that case you've got a bit of reading to do. Probably enough for the rest of your life if you spend 16 hours a day at it. The climate science papers are almost uniformly available for free since they're usually published at universities. For those that went via services that insist on users paying for access, you can simply write the authors and they'll send the full transcript to you. You see we scientists and engineers have to have peer-review before we publish or else nobody takes it seriously. If it's been published, then you can find it. If you're having trouble, e-mail the author directly. 

 

"often cited 93% of climate scientists agree thing was a lie" - so you have a source for this? I would agree that it is highly unlikely that we can put an accurate number to this since it's not something you can simply poll everyone about and get an answer to. However it's picking nits, I'll accept it's over 90%. Would you agree or are you of the opinion it is lower than that? If so, how much lower do you believe it to be? On what basis do you presume that to be the case?

 

"I believe that the world is generally getting warmer, and that anthropomorphic impacts it" - this shows you're well ahead of most of your compatriots on the Right, which is of course to your credit.

 

"An alternative to what?" - an alternative explanation for the data that shows very clearly that catastrophic global warming is occurring and at a faster rate than that originally feared.

"What do you do for a living?" - I am an engineer currently working in data science and geo-spatial technology for forest conservation in Southeast Asia.

[placeholder]

1 hour ago, Thingamabob said:

A lurid report recently stated that temperatures in Saudi Arabia were 'now reaching 50C'. I lived and worked in Riyadh 40 years ago and the temperature regularly reached 50C at that time.

You should publish your findings in the Journal of Unconfirmable Data. In the meantime, there's this:

Data-Driven Analysis of Climate Change in Saudi Arabia: Trends in Temperature Extremes and Human Comfort Indicators

 Our findings indicate that, over the past four decades, Saudi Arabia has warmed up at a rate that is 50% higher than the rest of the landmass in the Northern Hemisphere. Moreover, moisture content of the air has significantly increased in the region. The increases of temperature and humidity have resulted in the soaring of dewpoint temperature and thermal discomfort across the country.

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/apme/60/8/JAMC-D-20-0273.1.xml

 

[Red Forever]

1 hour ago, Thingamabob said:

A lurid report recently stated that temperatures in Saudi Arabia were 'now reaching 50C'. I lived and worked in Riyadh 40 years ago and the temperature regularly reached 50C at that time.

Correct me if I'm wrong but your comment seems to suggest that you're in climate change denial.

60 years ago I was working all around the world and yes, experienced temperatures of 50°c in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea.

If your argument is that global warming is a hoax based on your experience in Riyadh then it's a pretty weak argument.

"Lurid"! Hyperbole or what?

[placeholder]

9 hours ago, Skipalongcassidy said:

ADAPT or die... at this time of year I play golf in the morning instead of the afternoon... it isn't rocket science.

Excellent advice for outdoor laborers such as agricultural and construction workers. After all, it's not like they're doing this to feed themselves and their families.

 

Impacts of warming on outdoor worker well-being in the tropics and adaptation options

The harmful effects of global warming are already present for many people in the tropics, where high temperatures and humidity are often a feature of everyday life, especially for outdoor workers.1,2,3 The human and economic costs are significant. The cost of lost potential labor productivity for outdoor workers from heat is already estimated at several hundred billion to over 2 trillion dollars per year (in 2017 purchasing power parity adjusted dollars).Reports on the health, adaptation strategies, and well-being of outdoor workers to date indicate that impacts are pervasive across the tropics.

https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(24)00047-2?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2590332224000472%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

 

Chronic Kidney Disease Is Poised to Become the Black Lung of Climate Change

One of the enduring legacies of this summer’s spate of heat waves is likely to be a disease that few people have heard of, but which could become more prevalent as heat and humidity increase around the world. First documented in El Salvador’s sugarcane workers 21 years ago, Mesoamerican nephropathy, now known as Chronic Kidney Disease of Non-traditional origin (CKDnt), tends to manifest among outdoor laborers who work grueling hours in high heat conditions. Characterized by a fatal progressive loss of kidney function, CKDnt has killed at least 20,000 people in Central America since it was first diagnosed, and likely tens of thousands more elsewhere in the world.

https://time.com/6303020/chronic-kidney-disease-climate-change/

 

[Roo Island]

13 hours ago, impulse said:

When I was growing up, we called that "summer". 

 

Some years, it killed millions and parched the fields.  Just like it's been doing since the last ice age.  Long before Henry Ford and J D Rockefeller.

 

 

And how many years ago was that? Are the temperatures the same then as they are now? Hint. They aren't.

 

You really need a better source for your news. Seriously

[Roo Island]

7 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

How much would the Earth have to warm for it to really be noticeable? 

Climate Change Over the Last 100 Years (archives.gov)

Good gosh. Data from when Clinton was president. How about more recent data?

 

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/featured-images/2023-was-warmest-year-modern-temperature-record

 

The year 2023 was the warmest year since global records began in 1850 at 1.18°C (2.12°F) above the 20th-century average of 13.9°C (57.0°F). This value is 0.15°C (0.27°F) more than the previous record set in 2016. The 10 warmest years in the 174-year record have all occurred during the last decade (2014–2023).

[Cory1848]

6 hours ago, JCauto said:

 

Hard to respond the way the post gets broken up, but I'll try to do so to the questions you asked.

 

"Does the average person not know that?" - I have found myself amazed at how much the average person doesn't know, my experience has taught me to no longer assume that they have even a basic foundation of knowledge. 

"I don't accept anything I am unable to review" - well, in that case you've got a bit of reading to do. Probably enough for the rest of your life if you spend 16 hours a day at it. The climate science papers are almost uniformly available for free since they're usually published at universities. For those that went via services that insist on users paying for access, you can simply write the authors and they'll send the full transcript to you. You see we scientists and engineers have to have peer-review before we publish or else nobody takes it seriously. If it's been published, then you can find it. If you're having trouble, e-mail the author directly. 

 

"often cited 93% of climate scientists agree thing was a lie" - so you have a source for this? I would agree that it is highly unlikely that we can put an accurate number to this since it's not something you can simply poll everyone about and get an answer to. However it's picking nits, I'll accept it's over 90%. Would you agree or are you of the opinion it is lower than that? If so, how much lower do you believe it to be? On what basis do you presume that to be the case?

 

"I believe that the world is generally getting warmer, and that anthropomorphic impacts it" - this shows you're well ahead of most of your compatriots on the Right, which is of course to your credit.

 

"An alternative to what?" - an alternative explanation for the data that shows very clearly that catastrophic global warming is occurring and at a faster rate than that originally feared.

"What do you do for a living?" - I am an engineer currently working in data science and geo-spatial technology for forest conservation in Southeast Asia.

Thank you. The large number of irrational posts here reminds me of a meme, on antivaxxers but with a similar psychology going on. The first picture is labeled “vaccine research” and shows a group of people in lab coats in a lab, doing their work. The second picture is labeled “antivax research” and shows a woman sitting on a toilet staring into her cellphone.

 

I am not a scientist or engineer, but I value and respect the work of people such as yourself, as well as of the world’s climatologists, who are in overwhelming consensus about the nature and causes of climate change.