Fossil Fuels are Causing Deadly Heat Waves Worldwide

Picture courtesy: (Getty) Climate change caused by fossil fuels caused a killer heat wave, which makes it difficult for people to live without throwing water on themselves.

(The Post News)- A World Weather Attribution Initiative (WWAI) report published on Thursday, June 20, indicates that climate change caused by fossil fuels creates a killer heat wave around the U.S. and Mexico.

A 2.5-degree increase in temperature and a 35-fold increase in likelihood indicate that burning fossil fuels significantly raises average temperatures, leading to heat waves becoming a common occurrence in daily life if current trends continue.

The WWAI report was conducted during a record-breaking Juneteenth heat wave, which brought brutal temperatures typically seen in the far south to usually temperate northern latitudes from Chicago to the Northeast.

Since 2000, fossil fuel emissions have increased almost 50% from around 25 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year to a current, record rate of 37 billion.
The humans responsible for climate change dialled up the thermostat and turbocharged the odds during a month’s killer heat that has been increasing in the Southwestern United States, Mexico, and Central America. Sizzling during the day, temperatures are extremely hot, which contributes to the cases of heat stroke in the United States.

Margarita Salazar Pérez of Veracruz, an 82-year-old, said that it feels like an oven, which makes it difficult to stay in Mexico, especially when her home doesn’t have air conditioning.

It has been a while since they experienced cool air at night. People are used to only having to depend on cooler night temperatures to survive a heat wave.

According to study co-author Shel Winkley, a meteorologist at Climate Central, last week, the Sonoran Desert hit 125 degrees (51.9 degrees Celsius), which was the hottest day in Mexican history.

Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and contributor to the attribution study team, stated that the situation is even more horrific at night.

Night-time temperatures are 2.9 degrees Fahrenheit (1.6 degrees Celsius) warmer, making heatwaves 200 times more likely and increasing their deadly impact during the evening.

According to the World Weather Attribution Team, at least 125 people have died in Mexico during this month.

Production records and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are increasing faster than usual in many parts of the United States.

Heat is the most life-threatening of weather disasters. The hottest year on record was 2023, which resulted in 2,300 Americans dying of heat exposure.

Around 70% of workers worldwide are exposed to heat risks. WWAI comes in as a worldwide team of scientists based out of the U.K.’s Imperial College London.
WWAI, using a combination of real-world data and computer modelling, addresses one of the critical inquiries following modern weather disasters: whether the event was caused by climate change. The answer was unequivocally yes.