Governments and organizations must listen to older adults’ experiences with extreme heat, flooding and wildfire smoke to create effective policies and programs
Many young athletes spend hours in the hot sun every day.
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As crops fail in the rising heat, men are leaving many rural areas for migrant work in cities. Women are left to tend to the farming in increasingly dangerous conditions.
A heat dome sent temperatures soaring as summer 2024 was about to begin. Orange is moderate heat risk for June 18, red is major, and purple is extreme.
NOAA
Extreme heat waves are putting lives in danger, with some of the hottest urban neighborhoods 10 degrees hotter or more than their wealthier neighbors. Often, these are communities of color.
Concrete and asphalt roads, and other built materials readily absorb, store and release heat, raising city temperatures, a phenomenon called the urban heat island.
(Pixabay)
La Niña is only part of the problem. The long-term driver of increasing drought – even in areas getting more rainfall overall – is the rapidly warming climate.
Honeybee workers gather on a frame from a hive.
(Leslie Kennah)
Beekeepers in British Columbia reported honeybee deaths during the 2021 heat dome. Other insects may also be at risk.
The main driver of climate change is the greenhouse effect – when certain gases in the Earth’s atmosphere trap the sun’s heat and cause global warming.
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The risk from heat waves is about more than intensity – being able to cool off is essential, and that’s hard to find in many low-income areas of the world.
A tropical storm’s rain overwhelmed a dam in Thailand and caused widespread flooding in late September. It was just one of 2021’s disasters.
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Kevin Trenberth, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
While surface temperatures were about the 6th warmest on record in 2021, the upper oceans were at their hottest – and they’re a stronger indicator of global warming. A top climate scientist explains.
Residents had to be rescued as Hurricane Ida flooded coastal Louisiana in August 2021.
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A hurricane that wreaked havoc from Louisiana to New York City, the Texas freeze and devastating western wildfires topped NOAA’s list of billion-dollar disasters in 2021.
Wildfires that swept through Sequoia National Forest in California in September 2021 were so severe they killed ancient trees that had adapted to survive fires.
AP Photo/Noah Berger
Studies show climate change is raising the risk of cascading hazards that alone might not be extreme but add up to human disasters. Communities and government agencies aren’t prepared.
Flooding is seen in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia after the remnants of Hurricane Ida, Sept. 2, 2021.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
More than half of the world’s population lives in cities, and that share is growing. Rapid climate change could make many cities unlivable in the coming decades without major investments to adapt.
Rising global temperatures are increasing heat risks for outdoor workers and the urban poor.
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Hot, humid population centers are becoming epicenters of heat risk as climate changes worsens. It’s calling into question the conventional wisdom that urbanization uniformly reduces poverty.