Earth Today | Coming to a boil

AS THE planet seems headed to a boil, thanks to ‘fossil fuel-charged, human-induced climate change’, United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres has issued a call to action that includes urgently making provisions for vulnerable populations as the heat rises.

It is a priority also identified by local climate scientist Professor Michael Taylor in 2019, and who at the time called for the development of a heat plan for Jamaica.

“We do need a heat policy and plan in the country. We have easily seen how it (heat) disrupts lives and the quality of life. It is not just feeling uncomfortable. The most vulnerable are affected – the elderly and the very young – and anybody who has to work outside. And, currently, we leave it up to people to say, ‘Well, we can’t spend this amount of hours outside’,” Taylor, a respected physicist, regionally and globally, told The Gleaner at the time.

“When it gets too hot, who ensures that you have the cooling stations? What about the homeless? What about cooling shelters? All of these things should be covered under some kind of policy or plan that says, when certain thresholds are reached, this is what we must do. We need something for heat in the same way that we have for other emergencies,” added the head of the Faculty of Science and Technology at The University of the West Indies.

Taylor also served the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the premier body for assessing climate science, including work as a lead author for the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Fast-forward five years and the UN boss has himself identified the urban poor and pregnant women among the vulnerable groups requiring attention amid increasing temperatures.

“Those most at risk when the mercury soars include the urban poor, pregnant women, people with disabilities, older people, the very young, the sick, the displaced, and the impoverished – who often live in substandard housing without access to cooling,” Guterres said, speaking at a press conference on excessive heat on July 25.

“For example, heat-related deaths for people over 65 years of age increased around 85 per cent in 20 years. UNICEF tells us that almost 25 per cent of all children today are exposed to frequent heatwaves. By 2050, that could rise to virtually 100 per cent. And the number of urban poor living in extreme heat could rise 700 per cent. Extreme heat amplifies inequality, inflames food insecurity, and pushes people further into poverty,” he added.

The situation is such, Guterres maintained, that the world must respond by “massively increasing access to low-carbon cooling; expanding passive cooling – such as natural solutions and urban design; and cleaning up cooling technologies while boosting their efficiency”.

Those efforts, he noted, would yield protection for some 3.5 billion people by 2050, “while slashing emissions and saving consumers $1 trillion a year”.

A drastic cut in greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels is a necessary condition for success in limiting the impacts of a changing climate. Climate change is responsible for extreme weather events – the likes of Hurricane Beryl, which recently devastated parts of the Caribbean, including Jamaica where several parishes experienced heavy flooding and suffered severe infrastructure damage from which they are still in recovery.

Rising temperatures is another manifestation of the changing climate and for which Guterres has also urged “protection for workers” as part of his recent call to action.

“It’s also vital to boost protection for the most vulnerable – in line with the Early Warning Systems for All initiative. The World Health Organization and World Meteorological Organization estimate that scaling-up heat health-warning systems in 57 countries alone could save almost 100,000 lives a year,” Guterres said.

Jamaica, meanwhile, has taken some steps towards enhancing heat preparedness. Earlier this year, the island hosted a three-day workshop in Kingston on ‘Heat-Health Early Warning Systems’. It saw the participation of stakeholders, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and civil society actors.

The workshop was an initiative of the United States’ President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience programme, which is to see NOAA working with Jamaica and other pilot countries to integrate heatwave forecasts with health data, to issue warnings and alerts when necessary.

Health facilities, under the Smart Health Care Facilities in the Caribbean project, have been retrofitted for increased operational efficiency that should lead to a reduction in fossil fuel consumption; installation of renewable energy sources; improved safety index against severe weather events; and greater capacity to ensure maintenance of water supply during drought seasons.

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