Extreme heat waves spark climate emergencies worldwide

The Star

7 days ago

BANGKOK (Xinhua): A new heat wave alert has raised the alarm worldwide as Europe and the Middle East battled an extremely scorching hot weather this week, prompting many countries to declare climate emergencies.
According to Iran's national meteorological service, the country is sweltering through its hottest week of the year, with temperatures hitting above 50 degrees Celsius. In Tehran, the temperatures shot up to 40 degrees on Sunday.
As the searing heatwaves persisted, Tehran's water authority had urged residents to cut down water consumption by at least 20 per cent, warning that reservoirs at the dams supplying water to the capital have sunk to "their lowest levels in a century."
Some 3,500 km west of Tehran, the Greek capital of Athens is enduring its first prolonged heatwave of this summer as well.
Hot air masses sweeping in from North Africa arrived earlier than usual and have formed a heat dome over Greece and the Balkans, pushing temperatures up to 10 degrees above the seasonal norm, said its National Observatory.
With average highs forecast to reach 38 degrees this week and peak at 44 degrees in some areas. The National Herald, a Greek daily, described conditions as "hotter than hell."
Such aridity, combined with gale-force winds, has put Greece under severe wildfire outbreaks.
Firefighters on Thursday grappled with a blaze on the island of Crete that burned through forests and olive groves, forcing the evacuation of more than 1,000 people.
In addition, a new outbreak of fire near Athens edged dangerously close to residential areas.
Elsewhere, Türkiye recorded 761 wildfires in the 10 days following June 26. The fires flaring in and around the western Izmir Province have claimed the lives of an elderly man and a forest department worker.
Across Europe, at least eight heat-related deaths have been reported in several countries, including Spain and Italy, as the continent baked in the heatwave.
"We are currently under the influence of a strong high-pressure system; this is trapping hot air from northern Africa over the region. And as we can see, it's having a pretty big impact on what we are experiencing now," Clare Nullis, a World Meteorological Organisation spokesperson, said earlier.
She noted that humans will have to learn to live with more frequent and intense heat waves as a result of climate change.
The EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service said in a recent article that "damage to the built environment from extreme weather events is expected to increase tenfold by the end of the century due to climate change alone."
Such widespread climate impacts highlight the importance of building greater resilience, it noted, calling for physical and technological measures such as water recycling, separation of rain and greywater, climate-resilient building design, risk mapping, and early warning systems.
"Adaptation is required across all sectors and governance levels, and actions must address both current climate impacts and steps to protect against future risks," it said. -Xinhua