Cities across the United States Pacific Northwest are experiencing what has been described as life-threatening heat.
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Extreme heat is one of the deadliest consequences of climate change, killing more people than any other weather related event.
Heat waves this intense can lead to widespread fatalities and long-lasting health effects. There are too many jaw-dropping records from this still-unfolding heat wave for a comprehensive listing right now.
It's an all too familiar headline. As Australia settles into the cooler temperatures of winter, our North American counterparts are experiencing the opposite extreme. The past six years have been the hottest on record, with 2020 tying the record for the hottest year ever. It should then be no surprise heat records are broken so frequently.
As a doctor, I see the health impacts of extreme heat all too often. In Australia, heatwaves cost more lives than all other natural hazards combined. The most wide-ranging study to date, associating this advancing heat directly to human illness and death was recently published in Nature. What they concluded was deeply concerning.
Researchers found more than a third of summertime heat-related deaths could be attributed to climate change. Of the 43 countries in the study, Australia was among the most vulnerable.
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Hotter summers lead to an increase in heat-related illnesses, such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and drive up hospital admissions and death rates, particularly among older people and people with chronic illnesses. Even small changes in temperature, rainfall, and humidity can create the right conditions for infectious disease to spread. Changes to the distribution and abundance of mosquitoes has meant people are contracting dengue fever and Ross River virus in areas where they weren't previously at risk.
We have one cure - to alter our carbon footprint and reduce our emissions. Recommendations from the International Energy Agency are clear: there should be no new investments in coal, oil or gas if the world is to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement and reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Australia will not meet this goal if our governments continue to support fossil fuel projects over renewable energy investments.
As a medical professional I see climate change affecting the health of Australians.
It falls to each of us to pressure our governments to protect our health and environment by prioritising clean energy. Before it's too late.
- Dr Beau Frigault, Queensland Chair of Doctors for the Environment Australia
