Australia faces increased deaths from heatwaves



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Australia could face a dramatic increase in heat-related deaths if governments do not do more to help communities adapt to climate change, warns a major international study.

Tropical and subtropical regions of South-East Asia and South America It is likely that the population will experience the largest increase in heat-related deaths if measures are not implemented. place to help people live in warmer temperatures for decades to come.

In the most extreme scenarios, the heatwaves in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne would increase by 471 percent between 2031 and 2080 compared to the next four decades.

Yuming Guo, Associate Professor According to the Monash University, the epidemiology and biostatistics of the environment indicate that governments are implementing coping strategies such as l '# 39; improvement of urban planning and public education. "If the Australian government can not make efforts to reduce the effects of heat waves, more people will die because of heat waves in the future," Prof. said. Guo Assoc, quoted in the journal PLOS Medicine Wednesday. 19659002] "The current heat wave in the northern hemisphere is serious and many people are worried about their health."

"This underscores how important our study is to providing evidence to governments to do something, especially in Australia where the government cut

much of Europe, some parts of the country, and the rest of the world. Asia and North America have spent the last few weeks in the heat.

Canada and Japan each recorded at least 30 heat-related deaths as temperatures skyrocketed during the month of July

Previous studies have warned of a future increase in the number and severity of heat waves due to climate change, but the research conducted by Assoc Prof Guo and the team is the first to examine the Potential impact of heat waves on global mortality rates.

Researchers describe heatwaves as a critical public health problem because they can cause heat stroke and cramps. Models used to estimate future heat-related deaths included data on future greenhouse gas emissions, population growth, and hypothetical changes that governments could introduce to help communities cope with higher temperatures.

They then applied this data to estimate the links between heat waves and deaths in 412 communities in 20 countries.

They found that if governments do not introduce measures to help communities adapt, deaths from heatwaves are expected to increase in subtropical countries, with Colombia, the Philippines and Brazil being facing the biggest increases.

If adjustments are made, mortality rates are expected to increase further in most countries, but at a slower pace.

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