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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2026/feb/19/extreme-heat-lab-enduring-the-climate-of-the-future>
"Around the world, global heating is already giving us more frequent heatwaves,
and when we get them they are lasting longer and bringing more heat.
As burning fossil fuels adds more and more heat to the planet, climate
scientists know these trends will get ever more deadly.
According to the medical journal the
Lancet, heat extremes caused an
estimated 546,000 deaths every year between 2012 and 2021 – a 63% rise on rates
seen in the 1990s.
“That's the equivalent of a fully loaded jumbo jet full of people going down
once every seven hours throughout the year,” says Prof Ollie Jay.
“And the really important thing to keep in mind is that every heat related
death is preventable.”
Jay is the director of the Heat and Health Research Centre at the University of
Sydney, the home of the Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory – a chamber the size of a
big bedroom where the temperature and humidity can be tightly controlled.
So what does extreme heat do to the body? What does it feel like to take a walk
in the kind of heat that will become all too frequent in the very near future?
Me and my 51-year-old body are here to find out. I'm going to go into the
climate room twice. The first time, it's going to be 43C and 18% humidity – the
sort of conditions we'll see a lot more of in place like Sydney, Mexico City
and São Paulo when global warming gets to 2C. That might only be a couple of
decades away."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
