Climate change raises risk of heatwaves in Asia – 05/19/2023 – Environment

The record-setting heat waves that hit large areas of south and southeast Asia in April have become “30 times more likely” as a result of human-induced climate change, an international team of scientists said on Wednesday.

The region recorded temperatures in excess of 40°C last month, with Bangladesh at its hottest point in 50 years, Thailand recording a record 45°C and Laos topping 42°C, which caused widespread damage to infrastructure and power shortages, as well as an increase in cases of stroke.

A team of scientists from the World Weather Attribution group studied heat and humidity levels in parts of India and Bangladesh, as well as Thailand and Laos, and concluded that they were at least 2°C warmer as a result of climate change. Global temperatures have risen by an average of 1.2°C since 1900.

Moist heat waves that used to occur once a century in Bangladesh and India are now expected to happen every five years, while heat in Thailand and Laos would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, scientists said.

“The heat waves were not natural,” Chaya Vaddhanaphuti, a member of the team at Chiang Mai University in Thailand, told a news conference on Wednesday.

“Unless we take drastic measures to reduce carbon emissions, heat waves like this will continue to become more common,” he said.

The study showed that in some parts of the region the estimated heat index – which takes humidity into account – was close to the “extremely dangerous” level of 54°C, posing considerable health risks, across South and Southeast Asia.

While some parts of the region have implemented “heat action plans” to provide emergency medical assistance and water or close schools, others are ill-prepared and have limited access to the resources needed to deal with extreme temperatures, he said.

It is not yet clear how many deaths resulted from heat waves in April, but extreme temperatures in India have caused at least 24,000 deaths since 1992, with 90% of the country’s total area lying in heat “danger zones”, scholars said in the month. past.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves