The climate crisis –which is attributed to the exhaust gases from the burning of fossil fuels – increases the temperature reaching levels that can be fatal for the human body. An indicative example is study of weather which showed heat stress on Sunday afternoon was “very severe” across much of the country, meaning the heat can make even the most mundane activities deadly.
In general, heat is the deadliest type of extreme weather, and the human-induced climate crisis is making heat waves more severe and prolonged. Add humidity to the mix and conditions in some places approach the limits of human survivability – the point to which our bodies simply cannot adapt.
Extreme heat stress in Greece
“Very strong” was the heat stress of the population in a large part of the country at noon (15:00) on Sunday 04/08. The graph below shows the heat stress in the areas of 160 selected weather stations from the meteo.gr network / National Observatory of Athens. According to the records of those stations, in 85 of them, the heat stress was “Very Strong” while in 1 it was “Extreme”. The total percentage of stations with “Very Severe” or “Extreme” heat stress was about 54%.
Heat stress was calculated based on the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI, °C) which incorporates meteorological parameters such as humidity, wind speed and radiation, taking into account the physiology of the human body. The temperature calculated by the UTCI can be assigned to a category of heat stress scale. For example, a UTCI temperature of 26 °C – 32 °C corresponds to the “moderate” category, 32 °C – 38 °C to the “strong” category, 38 °C – 46 °C to “very strong”, > 46 °C to “extreme” heat stress due to heat while the UTCI scale extends to heat stress due to cold.
Heat stress in the country
Regarding the maximum temperature in the country, it reached 40.2 °C, a value recorded in Sparta. The figure below shows the distribution of the maximum temperature in the country. As can be seen from the relevant information presented in this figure, the temperature exceeded 37 °C at 61 of the 493 currently active stations and 40 °C at 2 stations.
The distribution of the maximum temperature in the country
Deadly future
According to analysts who spoke to CNN, the human body has the ability to acclimatize to heat to some extent, but it takes time, and even then, sometimes the heat is just too extreme to adapt to.
A temperature of about 31 degrees Celsius is about the maximum temperature that healthy people can withstand, according to recent research. It may not sound that hot, but this is suffocating and deadly heat – almost 32 degrees with 100% humidity and almost no ability for the body to cool down.
Purdue University’s Huber and a team of scientists predicted that billions of people will be exposed to this dangerous threshold as global warming accelerates. With every half degree that the world warms, the heat “just expands outward into these hot, deadly spots,” Huber said.
A creeping threat
In addition, according to WHO data, extreme heat kills about 489,000 people every year, but this number could be higher because heat deaths are so difficult to detect.
Deaths can be attributed to heart attacks or strokes, without mentioning the fact that they occurred during a scorching heat wave. “Whether the death was caused by heat cannot be accurately measured,” said Bharat Venkat, director of the UCLA lab.
Heat does not have the power of a hurricane, the scorched earth of a fire or the vast devastation of a flood – all of which leave a visible and immediate trail of destruction, destroying homes, tearing up roads and leveling cities.
Instead, the heat is a creeping menace, a constant hum in the background. Its worst damage is not to properties but to our bodies, said Venkat. And he is an “invisible, silent killer”.
Extreme heat can kill
How extreme heat kills
Extreme heat breaks through your body’s defenses, quickly turning from unpleasant to deadly as the heavy feeling of a hot, sticky day turns into something more sinister.
It often begins with symptoms such as nausea, headaches, muscle cramps and even fainting. These are all signs of heat exhaustion – your body is dehydrated and begins to lose its ability to cool itself.
From there, things can evolve.
Heatstroke occurs when your body can’t use its normal tricks to cool itself, such as sweating and increasing blood flow to your skin, leading to a catastrophic rise in core temperature. Once your internal body temperature begins to rise above 104 Fahrenheit, which can happen within 10 to 20 minutes of exposure, “you’re moving toward death, and it can come very, very quickly,” Bailey said.
You may become disoriented and lose consciousness.
Major organs begin to shut down.
The barriers that separate your gut from the rest of your gut can become more porous, leaking deadly toxins into your blood.
Finally, your heart breaks.
Heat stroke “is an explosive disease,” Moseley said. “It’s an inflammatory, multi-system failure.” If not treated immediately, it can kill you quickly.