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A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 20 June 2017

Too hot to handle: Study shows Earth’s killer heat worsens

By SETH BORENSTEIN entire summers of what he
AP Science Writer called lethal heat condi-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Killer tions.
heat is getting worse, a A hotter world doesn’t nec-
new study shows. essarily mean more deaths
Deadly heat waves like the in all locales, Mora said.
one now broiling the Ameri- That’s because he found
can West are bigger killers over time the same blister-
than previously thought ing conditions — heat and
and they are going to grow humidity — killed fewer
more frequent, according people than in the past,
to a new comprehensive mostly because of air con-
study of fatal heat condi- ditioning and governments
tions. doing a better job keeping
Still, those stretches may people from dying in the
be less lethal in the future, heat.
as people become accus- So while heat kills and tem-
tomed to them. peratures are rising, peo-
A team of researchers ex- ple are adapting, though
amined 1,949 deadly heat mostly in countries that can
waves from around the afford it.
world since 1980 to look for In this June 4, 2017 file photo, Pakistan families cool themselves off in a water stream in Lahore, And those that can’t afford
trends, define when heat Pakistan. it are likely to get worse
is so severe it kills and fore- Associated Press heat in the future.
cast the future. “This work confirms the
They found that nearly one Temperatures hit records of ters, who wasn’t part of the number of killer heat days. alarming projections of
in three people now experi- 106, 105 and 103 in Santa study. So far this year, seven Even higher numbers are increasing hot days over
ence 20 days a year when Rosa, Livermore and San have done so. predicted for the Southeast coming decades — hot
the heat reaches deadly Jose, California on Sunday, “This is already bad. We U.S., much of Central and enough to threaten lives
levels. as a heat wave was fore- already know it,” Mora South America, central Af- on a very large scale,” said
But the study predicts that cast to continue through said. “The empirical data rica, India, Pakistan, much Dr. Howard Frumkin, a Uni-
up to three in four people midweek. In late May, suggest it’s getting much of Asia and Australia. versity of Washington en-
worldwide will endure that temperatures in Turbat, worse.” Mora and outside climate vironmental health profes-
kind of heat by the end of Pakistan, climbed to about Mora and colleagues cre- scientists said the study and sor who wasn’t part of the
the century, if global warm- 128 degrees (53.5 degrees ated an interactive glob- map underestimate past study.
ing continues unabated. Celsius); if confirmed, that al map with past heat heat waves in many poorer Mora documented more
“The United States is going could be among the five waves and computer simu- hot areas where record- than 100,000 deaths since
to be an oven,” said Cami- hottest temperatures reli- lations to determine how keeping is weak. 1980, but said there are like-
lo Mora of the University of ably measured on Earth, much more frequent they It’s more accurate when it ly far more because of ar-
Hawaii, lead author of a said Jeff Masters, meteo- will become under differ- comes to richer areas like eas that didn’t have good
study published Monday in rology director of Weather ent carbon dioxide pol- the United States and Eu- data. Not all of them were
the journal Nature Climate Underground. lution scenarios. The map rope. caused by man-made cli-
Change . Last year 22 countries or shows that under the cur- If pollution continues as it mate change.
The study comes as much territories set or tied records rent pollution projections, has, Mora said, by the end Just one heat wave — in Eu-
of the U.S. swelters through for their hottest tempera- the entire eastern United of the century the south- rope in 2003 — killed more
extended triple-digit heat. tures on record, said Mas- States will have a significant ern United States will have than 70,000 people.q