Weather disasters are striking the world four to five times more often and causing seven times more damage than in the 1970s, the United Nations weather agency reports. But these disasters are killing far fewer people.
People are using their air conditioners more frequently to mitigate climate impacts, but access to this much-needed cooling is uneven and the reliance on air conditioning may only make things worse.
Volunteers scrambled to hand out water, portable fans, popsicles and information about cooling shelters Thursday to homeless people living in encampments on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon, as the Northwest sweated through a heat wave gripping.
At least 25 soldiers died saving residents from wildfires ravaging mountain forests and villages east of Algeria's capital, the president announced Tuesday night as the civilian toll rose to at least 17.
People in the Pacific Northwest braced for another major, multiday heat wave starting Wednesday, just over a month after record-shattering hot weather killed hundreds of the region's most vulnerable people when temperatures soared to 116 degrees Fahrenheit (47 Celsius).
When the Washington State Department of Health said this week that the recent heat wave in the Northwest had killed 117 people, many people missed an important word in the announcement: preliminary.
I've never seen a summer like the one we're experiencing now. If Congress spends too little, or passes only the bipartisan infrastructure package, we will continue to head in the wrong direction, and there will be worse summers ahead.
The painkiller, taken by half of pregnant women worldwide, could be contributing to rising rates of reproductive system problems and neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD and autism.
"If we look at the rate of carbon emissions, most is emitted by the developed and industrialized countries, but the problem is poor countries like Bangladesh are the main sufferers."
