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Oct 21, 2021 1 min, 23 secs

The risk of extreme heat is a rising threat to fast-growing cities around the world, according to a new study published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. .

As more people move to cities and the climate warms, extreme heat could harm and kill more people, reduce worker productivity and hurt economies, the study says.

The study, which assessed more than 13,000 cities from 1983 to 2016, found that global extreme heat exposure increased nearly 200 percent over that time period, a result of population growth, climate change and the fact that city infrastructure absorbs more heat.

Nearly a quarter of the world’s population is in areas where extreme heat exposure is rising, the study says.  .

The Lancet Countdown, a yearly assessment of health risks from climate, found that children and people 65 and older have seen a steady increase in exposure to heat waves over the last decade.

The report also says climate change is increasing conditions suitable for infectious disease pathogens, reversing global progress in providing food and water security and increasing exposure to wildfires. .

Scientists have said temperatures so extreme would have been nearly impossible if not for climate change.

In the study of heat risk across the world’s cities, the authors used a measure called wet-bulb globe temperature to assess these factors

To understand trends in heat impacts, authors of the PNAS study estimated wet-bulb globe temperatures and heat index measures for thousands of cities using satellite thermal imaging data and combining them with readings on the ground

Some cities are preparing: The mayor of Seville, Spain, announced this week that his city will name and categorize heat waves similar to how meteorologists treat hurricanes. 

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