©Nature: Justin Sullivan/Getty
Nature, 22 August 2024
Extreme heat is a huge killer — these local approaches can keep people safe
As the threat of deadly heatwaves rises, scientists are working with cities to introduce low-tech cooling features to protect citizens.
George Luber was warming up to compete in his third tennis match on a hot summer’s day in Connecticut. Suddenly, in a daze, he started to drift in circles around the end of the court. Then he began vomiting. The next thing Luber remembers is waking up in hospital, where he was treated for heat stroke for three days. He was a healthy 12-year-old, and it was 1982.
Luber, now a medical anthropologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, knows that those most at risk from extreme heat include older people, pregnant women and outdoor workers. But his experience shows that hot weather can affect you even “if you’re a healthy young person with no pre-existing conditions”.
Extreme heat is a serious public-health threat: on average, it kills more people in the United States than any other weather event, including hurricanes, floods and extreme cold. The effects of scorching temperatures are exacerbated in cities, where buildings and roads soak up warmth. As Earth’s warming climate intensifies the problem, scientists are investigating evidence-based measures to make cities safer during hot periods. Researchers say that although progress has been made to address the threat, there are still obstacles to cities’ efforts to track mortality rates and implement solutions.
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