BRUSSELS, Belgium – Nearly half of colleges and hospitals in European cities are situated in city “heat islands”, exposing weak populations to health-threatening temperatures as local weather change impacts worsen, the European Union’s setting company has mentioned.
Around 46% of hospitals and 43% of colleges are in areas at the least 2 levels Celsius hotter than the regional common – fueling fiercer heatwave impacts than in rural areas, the European Environment Agency (EEA) mentioned on Wednesday, in an evaluation of how Europe can adapt to local weather change.
The cause is the city warmth island impact, the place dense clusters of buildings and infrastructure like roads take up and retain extra warmth than inexperienced areas.
“This is something which will have severe consequences for human health,” mentioned Blaz Kurnik, head of the EEA’s local weather adaptation division.
Climate change, attributable to business persevering with to burn fossil fuels, is making heatwaves hotter and extra frequent – a development that, when mixed with city warmth islands, poses dangers together with elevated deaths from warmth stress to weak populations just like the aged.
“Vulnerability in Europe is also increasing due to the aging population, due to the more condensed cities. This is something that, with the combination of the heat waves, will become quite a risk for society in the future,” Kurnik mentioned.
The phenomenon has already been noticed throughout temperature extremes. During an August 2003 heatwave, heat-related mortality in cities within the West Midlands space of Britain was twice as excessive as in native rural areas.
The EEA urged governments to introduce measures to reduce the warmth island impact in cities, reminiscent of introducing extra cooling inexperienced areas and water. Some already are – such because the City of Paris’s program to remodel 10 pilot faculties’ grounds into cooler, greener areas, with fountains and drought-resistant crops.
Kurnik mentioned different measures may embrace bringing ahead the beginning of college holidays to keep away from instructing in intense warmth – however that normally, whereas all EU nations now have some type of local weather adaptation technique, most have but to show them into concrete actions. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
