Global heat crisis: 20% of the world faces life-threatening temperatures

The Washington Post reports that 20 per cent of the population in the first five months of 2024 experienced temperatures exceeding 39 degrees Celsius at least once. Scientists consider this value potentially life-threatening.

The American newspaper states that since the beginning of the year, extremely high temperatures have been recorded around the world. For example, in early April, within just four days, 102 patients died of heat stroke in an intensive care unit in a hospital in Mali.

In the same month, an explosion occurred at a military base in Cambodia due to extremely high temperatures, resulting in the death of 20 soldiers. In Mexico, dozens of howler monkeys died due to the heat—their lifeless bodies fell from the tree branches.

The Washington Post, using meteorological data collected from over 14,000 places worldwide, estimated in recent days that over 1.5 billion people had experienced the effects of extreme temperatures by the end of May 2024. The cities included in the analysis are home to slightly less than half of the world's population, suggesting that the number of people exposed to dangerous heat could be much higher.

According to the authors, global warming is causing a rise in temperatures, leading to increased days that can risk the health and lives of people and animals. Bangkok is given as an example, where 76 extreme temperature days have been recorded this year. This is more than twice the average for Thailand's capital.

This is a record figure when compared to meteorological data maintained since 1979. The situation was much more severe in Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, where 13 times more life-threatening heat days were recorded this year than the average.

Estimates show that out of 150 cities with populations exceeding 1 million and where at least one day with temperatures above 39 degrees Celsius was recorded by the end of May, 135 cities noted more dangerous heat days than the annual average for that period.

Even though summer has just begun in the northern hemisphere, scientists are already predicting that 2024 could be the hottest in history. Researchers believe that the El Niño weather phenomenon and the emission of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide and methane, are driving the dangerously rising mercury.