Without Urgent Global Action, Rising Temperatures Will Make More Regions Unlivable
The climate crisis is creating increasingly dangerous conditions as global temperatures rise. This week, Canada’s Pacific Northwest experienced record-breaking temperatures that shattered all previous highs. British Columbia reached a shocking 47.9°C, temperatures typically seen in the Sahara Desert. The extreme heat has caused dozens of deaths due to heat stress, and infrastructure has buckled, with roads cracking and power cables melting.
The heatwave, which devastated British Columbia, follows similar events earlier in June in the Middle East, where temperatures surpassed 50°C in five countries. The severe heat spread to Pakistan, where 20 children in a classroom fainted from heat stress, though fortunately, they all survived.
Scientists warn that extreme heatwaves like these are becoming more common due to global warming, which significantly increases their probability. For example, the 2019 European heatwave that claimed 2,500 lives was five times more likely than it would have been without the influence of climate change. The ongoing climate emergency means more areas of the world will become too hot for humans to inhabit without immediate action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
