Commonly associated with longer days and slower paces, this summer’s record-smashing heat in Arizona demonstrated a concerning future for the planet’s warmest season. From power outages endangering entire neighborhoods and heat-related deaths rising among some of the state’s most vulnerable populations, the city of Phoenix found itself in national headlines. As national attention grew, one question became clear: How does anyone live there?
The consequences of extreme heat do not affect Arizona residents alone. Extreme heat made worldwide news this year, including in November when a 23-year-old woman died of cardiorespiratory arrest at a Taylor Swift concert in Brazil where heat indexes that day exceeded 120 degrees.
Jennifer Vanos, associate professor in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, studies extreme heat and its health impacts. She is the lead author of a new paper published Nov. 29 in Nature Communications.
Titled “A physiological approach for assessing human survivability and liveability to heat in a changing climate,” the paper explores temperatures at which humans can survive. The research demonstrates that the current estimated upper temperature and humidity limits used for human survivability may not paint an accurate picture of the impacts of a warming planet on human health.
“For the past decade or so we have been using what we call a ‘wet bulb temperature’ of 35 degrees Celsius, or 95 degrees Fahrenheit, as the limit for human survivability,” said Vanos, also a Senior Global Futures Scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory.
2023-12-01 03:41:02
Link from phys.org