In cities, dangerous heat exposure has tripled since the 1980s, with the poor most at risk

[marmar]

(The Conversation) Extreme urban heat exposure has dramatically increased since the early 1980s, with the total exposure tripling over the past 35 years. Today, about 1.7 billion people, nearly one-quarter of the global population, live in urban areas where extreme heat exposure has risen, as we show in a new study released Oct. 4, 2021.

Most reports on urban heat exposure are based on broad estimates that overlook millions of at-risk residents. We looked closer. Using satellite estimates of where every person on the planet lived each year from 1983 to 2016, we counted the number of days per year that people in over 13,000 urban areas were exposed to extreme heat.

The story that emerges is one of rapidly increasing heat exposure, with poor and marginalized people particularly at risk.

Nearly two-thirds of the global increase in urban exposure to extreme heat was in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. This is in part because of climate change and the urban heat island effect – temperatures in urban areas are higher because of the materials used to build roads and buildings. But it is also because the number of people living in dense urban areas has rapidly increased.

Urban populations have ballooned, from 2 billion people living in cities and towns in 1985 to 4.4 billion today. While the patterns vary from city to city, urban population growth has been fastest among African cities where governments did not plan or build infrastructure to meet the needs of new urban residents. ..............(more)

https://theconversation.com/in-cities-dangerous-heat-exposure-has-tripled-since-the-1980s-with-the-poor-most-at-risk-169153

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. K&R

[BeckyDem]

2. It always is.

[jimfields33]

3. Yeah build a bunch of stuff with cements and it's bound to happen

[Hortensis]

4. Good article. Thanks, Marmar. Focus on the most affected 1.7B underrepresents

the scope of the problem for humanity, though. This is happening to various degrees around the planet.

Here in the comfy, advanced, mostly temperate climate mainland U.S., more and more people (most of whom weren't or didn't know they were "poor" ) have been dying from heat exposure. AC will become far more common where it hasn't been, including urban apartment buildings where many of the deaths have been occuring. But that takes time, and what happens when the power goes down and stays down?

Much of our population explosion has expanded into regions where living is unsustainable without AC, and is quickly becoming more so. Millions of homes that were built to seal in cool air become uninhabitable ovens without power.

Good idea right now to plant a tree (or trees) where it'll do the most good, and to take refuge under when that isn't enough.

[marie999]

5. We have a fragile electricity grid in the U.S.

As it gets hotter more electricity will be needed to keep people protected from the heat. If our electricity grid is not brought up to what is needed not just now but in the future, more and more people will die from the heat.

[bronxiteforever]

6. Kick and recommend.