The death threat of the heat wave skyrockets for the elderly and city dwellers



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Last year, more than 150 million vulnerable people around the world were exposed to life-threatening heatwaves, scientists said Thursday, pointing out that climate change poses an unprecedented risk to climate change. global health.

Dozens of people worldwide According to international agencies, people over 65, people living in big cities, and people with heart and lung diseases were all at increased risk death or disability due to extreme heat.

The warning came as the United Nations meteorological body said that The four hottest years were recorded, of which 2018.

On a global scale, 153 billion dollars were spent in the United States. hours of work were lost due to heat exposure in 2017, including 7% of total working hours in India, the authors added, adding that it is likely that the cost of protecting people against heatwaves will increase as our planet warms up.

The outlook is particularly alarming for Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, where the temperature is rising in temperature According to the main author of the study, "and an aging population have produced a" perfect storm "Risk Factors,

" For a very long time, we believe that climate change is affecting the environment in 2100, "Nick Watts, executive director of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, said told AFP

"When you consider climate change as a public health problem, it really turns your head upside down. This is not just about polar bears or rainforests, it's something that affects communities, children, families in the UK, Europe and the world. "

The study team included experts from 27 institutions around the world who had mapped various climate and health trends.

Watts and his team found that although global temperatures have risen 0.3 ° C since the mid-1980s, for people most exposed to heat exposure risk, the average rise from temperature to more than doubled – 0.8 C.

This has been attributed to a mix of factors, including migration to cities – vulnerable to heatwaves due to "the effect of 39 "urban heat island", thus extreme localized heat because climate change has devastating effects on our weather systems.

"If you just look at the heat, you can see what the heat waves are doing," said Watts.

"If you do what we publish, you end up seeing that people are aging, they are migrating and growing in the areas most affected by climate change."


About 80% of all hours of work lost under the extreme heat effect were in agriculture, with India being the most affected in terms of total number of hours lost.

In July, scientists said that climate change made heat waves twice as likely to occur in 2040.

Lancet study authors, using their varied parameters in health and climate, said they detected 18 million additional people at risk exposed to dangerous heat levels compared to two years ago.

A few days before the Polish authorities gather for discussions aimed at finalizing the goals of the Paris climate agreement, the authors said that governments were putting their populations at a disadvantage by underfunding the country. basic health infrastructure to protect against extreme weather conditions.

globally, which is well below the commitments made in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

"When you go through the heating plans of many governments, they are planning heating as well. it has been historically, "said Watts.

"Unless governments prepare plans that take into account that we are going to see a lot of this, these plans will be submerged.

(This story was not changed by the staff of Business Standard and is automatically generated by a syndicated feed.)