Heatwaves - what's so bad about them?

Hi everyone,

Today we’re talking about heatwaves and what effects they have on us and the environment. Heatwaves are becoming ever more common, with 2023 breaking multiple world records. In China, 52.2°C were recorded at one point and the coastal waters near Florida, USA, were as warm as a hot tub. This is because of the combination of climate change and El Niño, both of which make the effects of the other worse. But we can’t push the blame onto El Niño. When analysed it became clear that without human made climate change the USA heat records would have been almost impossible.

So what exactly are the effects of such high temperatures. A study in Europe found that the 2022 heatwave possibly caused over 70 000 heat related deaths. Although it is sometimes hard to tell whether or not someone died from the heat or from something else, after analysing the data the team found that their original estimate of 62 000 people (which is still a lot) was probably underestimated and that the real number probably exceeded 70 000. Another study in the USA analysed 150 000 bird nests and found that the extreme heat considerably diminished the birds’ reproductive success. Birds nesting around farmland were particularly badly affected while nests in forests were slightly better protected by the shade. However, heatwaves also increase the likelihood for wildfires which are a big threat to forests. It is considered likely that in years to come, massive strips of land will become inhabitable for humans due to extreme heat and desertification. Farmers often lose crops and livestock during heatwaves causing food shortages. Emergency services are often over loaded during the extreme heat and water and electricity supplies can be affected. This can even cause blackouts. In general, cities are more affected due to the urban heat island effect. This is a phenomenon where cities are hotter than surrounding rural areas, due to buildings and roads absorbing more heat and even more heat being generated by traffic, people and factories. It is often characterised by the fact that it doesn’t cool down that much at night because of all the absorbed heat.

While the main way of preventing heatwaves is by fighting climate change, especially in cities there are some other solutions. One idea is to paint the roofs white, because that would reflect more of the suns energy instead of absorbing it. Another idea is to use less absorbent building materials to keep the city cool during the summer. But our favourite solution is to increase green spaces. Not only will these absorb CO2, produce oxygen and provide shade, it is also proven to help improve people’s mental health.

We hope you enjoyed this post. One of our viewers recently sent us a resource that we would like to share with you: https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/big-tech-co2-emissions/ It's a collection of stats about the carbon footprint of big tech companies. We hope you find it interesting. See you next week!

Your Green World Blog Team💚

Sources:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/11/231121175355.htm

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231019151652.htm

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231009191623.htm

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-023-01277-1

https://www.who.int/health-topics/heatwaves/

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/urban-heat-island/

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