GENEVA, Switzerland — The world should prepare to face increasingly intense heatwaves, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, as countries across the Northern Hemisphere reeled from soaring temperatures. "These events will continue to grow in intensity, and the world needs to prepare for more intense heatwaves," John Nairn, a senior extreme heat advisor at the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO), told reporters in Geneva. Heatwaves are amongst the deadliest natural hazards, with hundreds of thousands of people dying from preventable heat-related causes each year, Nairn said. Heat is a rapidly-growing health risk, due to burgeoning urbanisation, an increase in high temperature extremes, and demographic changes in countries with ageing populations. Nairn said that the number of drawn-out and simultaneous heatwaves in the Northern Hemisphere had swelled sixfold since the 1980s.

Source: Philippine Star July 18, 2023 16:53 UTC