Here is the number of days of “risky heat”, climate change added to our summer this year
Did it look like an unusually hot summer? This year, thanks to climate change, Canadians have experienced much more hot days to endanger their health. A new analysis matters exactly how much.
A report published on Wednesday by the non -profit group Central Climate shows that from June to August, the average Canadian experienced an additional 13 days of “risky heat”, thanks to climate change.
The analysis defines those as days when the temperature is warmer than 90% of local temperatures between 1991 and 2020.
Organization research and reports impacts and solutions on climate change, and makes this type of summer heat analysis twice a year for cities around the world. The global report has revealed that many regions of the world were much worse than Canada, with 955 million people worldwide known 30 or more “risky heat” due to climate change.
The exact temperature of “risky heat” can vary considerably between cities which normally have fresher summers, such as Vancouver, and those which normally have warmer summers, like Windsor, have. The threshold is when vulnerable people such as the elderly begin to feel health problems, said Kristina Dahl, vice-president of Science for Climate Central, as people tend to adapt to their local environment.
There were dead heat waves in both in Canada and in Europe, where a recent study estimated that A heat wave between June 23 and July 2 killed 1,500 people.
A new study suggests that out of the 2,300 deaths related to heat that occurred in 12 European cities in extreme weather in June, more than half could be attributed to climate change.
Dahl added that heat waves can also cause indirect risks, such as forest fire smoke. The smoke pollutes the air, “which is closely linked to premature deaths,” she said. “The reality is that increased temperatures take place in many ways.”
This year was Canada Second worst forest season recorded. A recent study estimates that Canadian forest fires caused 82,000 premature deaths in 2023.
There are extreme heat days each summer. But using climate models to compare this year’s temperatures with what would be expected without climate change, the new analysis shows how many days of additional “risky heat” occur across the country and in the world. It is despite the fact that the average global temperatures have increased Only about 1.4 C from pre -industrial times.
“A reality of the near future”
Environment Canada also published a quick analysis on Wednesday of 12 heat waves in Canada this summer. For 11 of them – to the west and in Quebec – he found that the heat waves of this magnitude were twice as likely due to climate change. A heat wave like the last, in Atlantic Canada from August 7 to 14, was 10 times more likely to change the climate.
Suffering temperatures broke more than 60 heat records across the country on Monday, but climatologists say that this time could become the summer standard by 2050.
Hossein Bonakdari, associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Ottawa, says that the message is clear.
“Climate change reshapes daily time in Canada, and people feel it most directly through extreme heat,” he said.
Bonakdari, who uses AI to study the risks of climate change, says that his model shows that, in 20 years, average temperatures across Canada will be 1.8 to 3.2 C warmer than they would be without climate change.
“It’s … a reality of a near future,” he said. “I’m not talking about the end of the century right now. I’m talking about the next 20 years and we have to be prepared.”
Jennifer Vanos, an associate professor at the School of Sustainability of Arizona State University, says that many people are already experiencing extreme heat.
“We really have to start making changes now against only worrying about the future,” she said.
This could include making air conditioning more available, having policies to ensure that people with outdoor jobs can get out of heat and community services to help people in dangerous situations due to heat, she says.
DAHL is suitable that the report shows that climate change is no longer a future threat and suggests that more efforts are needed to reduce fossil fuel emissions.
“Each delay in the reduction of emissions means that more communities, ecosystems and savings will suffer,” she said.
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