September 6, 2023

Climate linked ills threaten humanity

Washington Post -  Pakistan is the epicenter of a new global wave of disease and death linked to climate change, according to a Washington Post analysis of climate data, leading scientific studies, interviews with experts and reporting from some of the places bearing the brunt of Earth’s heating. This examination of climate-fueled illnesses — tied to hotter temperatures, and swifter passage of pathogens and toxins — shows how countries across the globe are ill-prepared for the insidious, intensifying risks to almost every facet of human health.

To document one of the most widespread threats — extreme heat — The Post and CarbonPlan, a nonprofit that develops publicly available climate data, used new models and massive data sets to produce the most up-to-date predictions of how often people in nearly 15,500 cities would face such intense heat that they could quickly become ill — in the near-term and over the coming decades..... 

The Post analysis showed that by 2030, 500 million people around the world, particularly in places such as South Asia and the Middle East, would be exposed to such extreme heat for at least a month — even if they can get out of the sun. The largest population — 270 million — was in India, followed by nearly 190 million in Pakistan, 34 million across the Arabian Peninsula and more than 1 million apiece in Mexico and Sudan.

The results show how the risk has been growing and will escalate into the future. The number of people exposed to a month of highly dangerous heat, even in the shade, will be four times higher in 2030 than at the turn of the millennium.

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