Greater than 13 days a 12 months with temperatures above 30°C pose a risk to Canadians' well being – what's occurring?

Essay by Eric Worrall

If this deadly global warming continues, Canadians may have to invest in t-shirts and shorts.

Broken temperature records are alarming, but it is not too late to limit global warming

Published: 3 September 2024, 23:51 AEST
Alex Crawford
Assistant Professor, Department of Environment and Geography, University of Manitoba

July 22, 2024 was the hottest day in recorded human history, with a global average temperature of 17.16 °C.

This followed the hottest June on record, which in turn followed the hottest May on record. All of this follows 2023, which was the hottest year on record at 1.48°C warmer than the 1850-1900 average, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

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… 1.48 degrees of total warming doesn't sound like much. So while these numbers are useful global benchmarks for scientists and policymakers, most Canadians are likely to feel the impacts of climate change only through certain (usually extreme) weather events.

For example, global warming is leading to more scorching heat waves that are leaving Canadians sweating, fatigued and, in some cases, in need of medical attention.

Let's consider the city of Montreal. Between 1900 and 1923, Montreal had an average of six days per year with temperatures above 30 °C. Since 2000 (2000-2023), the average number of days per year with temperatures above 30 °C has more than doubled to 13.

Every single hot day may still be just a hot day – that's the weather. But are there twice as many hot days in 24 years as there were a century ago? That's climate change.

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Read more: https://theconversation.com/broken-temperature-records-are-alarming-but-it-is-not-too-late-to-limit-global-warming-236300

As an Australian living a three-hour drive from the southern edge of the tropics, I want to reassure Canadians that we are doing just fine in this deadly warm climate. Some of us even enjoy it. You won't die if Montreal has 14 days a year over 30°C/86°F.

But some of them could live longer if global warming eases the severity of winters.

Even in hot countries like India, far more people die in cold weather than in warm weather.

The fact that cold weather poses a far greater threat to human health than heat waves should come as no surprise to anyone – except perhaps climate scientists.

Humans are a tropical species. In the environments where our ancestors originally lived, clothing is optional. Everywhere else, we all need clothing to protect us from anything less than extreme tropical conditions, or we will die of the cold.

As the Indian study linked above shows, the greatest threat to human health is ambient temperature, when people ignore temperatures that are slightly cooler than comfortable. How many Canadians have died before their time because environmental policies drove up energy prices and they were hesitant to turn on the heat?

The evidence is clear. Even mild cold weather puts a medical strain on our bodies, so much so that death rates, strokes and heart attacks increase significantly. Cold weather leads to a much greater increase in death rates than hot weather, even in hot countries like India.

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