Extreme heat: 'We're really starting now to understand how global climate is impacting our health'

AI Summary

Researchers highlight that the health impacts of extreme heat due to global warming are appearing sooner and at lower temperature increases than previously thought, with older adults especially vulnerable to heat-related illnesses.

Annette Young is pleased to welcome Dr. Simon Williams, Behavioural Scientist, WHO Consultant, Lecturer in psychology and a public health researcher at Swansea University. What concerns Dr. Williams most is that the health consequences of extreme heat, particularly for older adults, are emerging sooner and at lower levels of warming than we had previously understood. We are already living with approximately 1.3°C of global warming, and increasingly severe summers are exposing profound age-related vulnerabilities, from reduced physiological capacity to cool the body to underlying cardiovascular and other health conditions.