How cities can respond to extreme heat
The Heat Will Kill You First", a new book, America would have seen “the Hurricane Katrina of extreme heat". It is not just the United States, where 100m people are under heat-advisory notices, that is suffering. There is currently a spate of such heatwaves around the world.
Much of the Mediterranean is in similar straits, with temperatures exceeding 40°C (104°F) from Madrid to Cairo (which is suffering power cuts). In Beijing July 18th saw a 23-year-old record broken by a 27th consecutive day with a maximum temperature above 35°C. By increasing the odds of a wide range of extreme events, global warming also increases the chances that they will come in waves.
Unbearable heat does damage in various ways, including killing crops and livestock, but the immediate challenge it poses to human health is greatest in cities. Less vegetation, more sunlight-absorbing tarmac and more waste heat produce what is called the urban-heat-island effect, exacerbating temperatures. Cities also often have poor air quality, particularly in the places where the poorest people live; extreme heat on top of dirty air can stretch already hard-pressed lungs and hearts too far.
There are things to do as soon as the mercury rises. Get homeless people to cooling stations; encourage people to look in on elderly neighbours and relatives (the old, especially women over 80, dominate the excess deaths associated with heatwaves); make it possible for those who must work outside to do so very early in the morning; put hospitals on an emergency footing. The appointment of chief heat officers empowered to co-ordinate such things in American cities, and farther afield, is a welcome trend.
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