Although Christmas was exceptionally mild, it was no heatwave. So this may not the best time of the year to be reading and writing about heatwaves. However, an alarming report by World Weather Attribution (a network of climate researchers) and Climate Central (a non-profit which communicates climate science), which I read over the holiday, made me wake up to the fact that not only was 2024 the hottest on record, with record carbon emissions, but it was exceptional for its killer heatwaves, among other extreme weather events.
Having said that there is some good news, so read on.
In 2024 the climate crisis caused an added six weeks of dangerously hot days for the average person in the world, supercharging the fatal impact of heatwaves, although the impact was not even. The Caribbean and Pacific island states were the hardest hit with many people there enduring about 150 more days of dangerous heat than they would have done without global heating – that is an astonishing five months.
Almost half the world’s countries endured at least two months of high-risk temperatures. Even in the least affected places, such as the UK, USA and Australia, carbon pollution from fossil fuel burning led to an extra three weeks of raised temperatures. (For us in the UK, 2022 was much worse, but that is little consolation.)
Indonesia, home to 280 million people, experienced an added 122 days of dangerous heat, as did Singapore and many Central American states. In the Middle East, people in Saudi Arabia suffered seventy extra hot days, causing at least 1,300 deaths amongst hajj pilgrims.
Brazil and Bangladesh endured about fifty extra hot days, while Spain, Norway and the Balkan countries each had an extra month of high temperatures.
To cap it all, on 21 July, one of the hottest days of the year, five billion people, almost two-thirds of the global population, experienced raised temperatures made at least twice as likely by global heating.
Joseph Giguere, a researcher at Climate Central, said: ‘Almost everywhere on Earth, daily temperatures hot enough to threaten human health have become more common because of climate change.’
So, after all this, is there any good news?
Yes – definitely! A growing body of research has documented the experience of climate change anxiety (CCA) particularly in young people, which can lead to major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). But a paper that was also part of my holiday reading (‘Climate change anxiety and mental health: Environmental activism as buffer’) shows that being engaged in action particularly with others really does help to relieve the condition. Acting alone can lead to excessive brooding but acting together makes all the difference. Personally, I can vouch for that.
So why not join us in 2025? Get in touch via sustainablekeswick@gmail.com.
Joe Human
Sustainable Keswick
Recent Comments