Menu Close

Articles on Heat wave

Displaying 61 - 80 of 183 articles

Older adults experiencing homelessness and housing insecurities are some of those most impacted by climate change. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Better emergency preparedness can protect older adults from climate change

Governments and organizations must listen to older adults’ experiences with extreme heat, flooding and wildfire smoke to create effective policies and programs
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)

Small green spaces can help keep cities cool during heat waves

During heatwaves, the highest temperatures are often found in urbanized areas. Small green spaces are often overlooked as a way to cool urban areas.
Farmers in some regions are being encouraged to preserve and establish grasslands that can survive drought and protect the soil. AP Photo/Mark Rogers

Grim 2022 drought outlook for Western US offers warnings for the future as climate change brings a hotter, thirstier atmosphere

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.
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. Richard Drury/Getty Images

Climate change report: what we must do to avert the looming crisis

Emission of greenhouse gases is on the rise, an indication that the worst lies ahead.
Banana plantation workers in Panama find shade under a vehicle during a break. Jan Sochor/Latincontent/Getty Images

Heat waves hit the poor hardest – calculating the rising impact on those least able to adapt to the warming climate

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. Chaiwat Subprasom/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Ocean heat is at record levels, with major consequences

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.
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

Devastating Colorado fires cap a year of climate disasters in 2021, with one side of the country too wet, the other dangerously dry

US disasters in 2021 told a tale of two climate extremes. A climate scientist explains why wet areas are getting wetter and dry areas drier.
A firefighter checks homes after a mudslide that killed 23 people in Montecito, Calif., in 2018. Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Evacuations ordered as a powerful storm heads for California’s wildfire burn scars, raising risk of mudslides – this is what cascading climate disasters look like

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

Cities worldwide aren’t adapting to climate change quickly enough

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. Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images

Dangerous urban heat exposure has tripled since the 1980s, with the poor most at risk

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.

Top contributors

More