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Climate change will bring more heat waves

Expect more heat waves due to climate change, experts warn, Jakarta Post, LIN TAYLOR, REUTERS, London | Fri, July 27, 2018    The effects of climate change mean the world can expect higher temperatures and more frequent heat waves, climate experts have warned, with poor communities likely to be worst affected.

Heat is neglected because it is both an invisible and hard-to-document disaster that claims lives largely behind closed doors, they said, and because hot weather does not strike many people as a serious threat.

The warning comes as hot weather has swept the northern hemisphere. Britain has sweltered in a prolonged heat wave, with temperatures set to test national records, the country’s Meteorological Office said…..

Fires have also caused devastation in Greece, Sweden and the United States. In Greece, rescuers are searching scorched land and the coastline for survivors three days after a wildfire destroyed a village outside Athens killing at least 82 people.

Health risks

The past three years were the hottest on record, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization said in March.

The World Health Organization says heat stress, linked to climate change, is likely to cause 38,000 extra deaths a year worldwide between 2030 and 2050.

Two weeks into Japan’s blistering heat wave, at least 80 people have died and thousands have been rushed to emergency rooms, as officials urged citizens to stay indoors to avoid temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104°F) in some areas.

n a heat wave in May, more than 60 people died in Karachi, Pakistan, when the temperature rose above 40C ( 104F ).

“Heat waves are becoming more frequent, and that is likely due to climate change because the global temperature is rising,” Sven Harmeling, head of climate change and resilience policy at aid group CARE International, said by phone.

He said climate change was altering weather patterns, and “we have to prepare for more of these consequences”.

……..Nearly one in three people around the world are already exposed to deadly heat waves, and that will rise to nearly half of people by 2100 even if the world moves aggressively to cut climate-changing emissions, a University of Hawaii study found in 2017.

……About 1.1 billion people in Asia, Africa and Latin America are at risk from a lack of air conditioning to keep them cool as global warming brings more high temperatures, the non-profit Sustainable Energy for All said in a study last week…..http://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2018/07/27/expect-more-heat-waves-due-to-climate-change-experts-warn.html

July 28, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change