California debates naming heatwaves to underscore deadly risk of extreme heat

(The Guardian, 28 Feb 2022) Experts and advocates are also exploring new ranking systems to add urgency to the growing disaster of rapidly warming landscapes.

Climate scientists from around the world issued dire warnings on Monday, in the latest IPCC report on the dangers posed in the unfolding climate crisis. Among them is extreme heat, a crisis that on average already claims more American lives than hurricanes and tornadoes combined.

Though the impact is already being felt, heatwaves are largely silent killers. Often, the toll is tallied far into the aftermath of an event and is vastly undercounted. Unlike fires and floods that produce immediate and visible destruction, heat’s harmful effects can seem more subtle – even if they are in fact more deadly.

“People don’t think of heat as a hazard,” says Kristie Ebi, a professor in the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington. But in the Pacific north-west, where Ebi lives, for example, unprecedented temperatures baked the region last year, bewildering residents used to moderate, often lukewarm, summers.

Policymakers and environmentalists are looking for better ways to close the gap in the public’s perception of the risks, especially in the American west where landscapes are rapidly warming.

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The Guardian, 28 Feb 2022: California debates naming heatwaves to underscore deadly risk of extreme heat