Original Article by Chris Walker , Truthout.
“The influence of climate change has [temperatures] up by several degrees,” the study’s lead author said.
Human-caused climate change was responsible for around 1,500 deaths during this year’s atypical heat wave across Europe, a newly published rapid study of mortality data suggests.
The study, conducted by scientists at Imperial College of London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, examined 2,300 heat-related deaths across 12 European cities during the heat wave from June 23 to July 2. About two-thirds of those deaths — approximately 1,500 — were directly attributable to additional warming caused by the climate crisis, scientists said.
Those deaths only happened “because of climate change,” said study co-author Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College. “They would not have died if it would not have been for our burning of oil, coal and gas in the last century.”
Temperatures across those 12 cities were 2 to 4 degrees Celsius above what would have naturally occurred if not for human-caused climate change, the scientists discovered.
Certain groups of people, particularly the elderly, were more affected by the rise in heat levels than others — indeed, 1,100 of those 1,500 deaths involved people who were 75 years of age or older.
Related Story Activists project flames and commentary on the side of the Trump International Hotel in protest of President Donald Trump's response to science and climate change in the face of devastating wildfires burning throughout the United States on October 21, 2020, in Washington, D.C. | The days of loudly debating the science have mostly given way to an effort to withhold the raw information itself. “The influence of climate change has [temperatures] up by several degrees and what that does is it brings certain groups of people more into dangerous territory. … For some people it’s still warm fine weather but for now a huge sector of the population it’s more dangerous,” said lead author of the study Ben Clarke of Imperial College.
The climate crisis also likely contributed to higher rates of wildfires seen across Europe. More than 200,000 hectares of land have burned across European Union member states since the start of the year, more than twice the average that has burned annually from 2006 to 2024. Around 1,118 wildfires have been detected across the EU, too — a 56 percent increase from last year.
While wildfires can be natural phenomena, scientists around the globe largely agree that the drying conditions leading to an increase in wildfires are caused by the climate crisis.
“The evidence connecting the climate crisis and extreme wildfires is clear. Increased global temperatures and reduced moisture lead to drier conditions and extended fire seasons,” an article from The Nature Conservancy published earlier this year explains. “Prolonged heatwaves can take what was once a natural event in the fire-cycle process and supercharge it into a maelstrom that devastates entire communities. And, crucially, worsening wildfires mean larger amounts of stored carbon are released into the atmosphere, further worsening climate change.”
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It doesn't matter. Whether you sweat mostly water and it evaporates or water is evaporated to cool down the air around you, it is functionally the same in terms of the possibility of removing heat from your body. However taking external water has the benefit of not requiring your own water, helping you to dry out slower.
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Lets take the 40°C 30% humidity example. If you go down vertically you end up with saturation at around 19°C. That is still quite fresh. If you take the 50% humidity at 40°C it will saturate at 27°C. Not nice, but still bearable. Anything in between on the vertical lines, so with the amount of water in that air being constant will just result in the same. The cooler it is the more humid it is, but the less humid it is, the better your own sweating can cool you.
I wonder if spraying water mist continuously will only bring a classic 20-30% @40°C up to 50%... But if it does, good luck, I was talking about this:
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I think you don't understand the thermodynamics well. The evaporating water cools the air. That is the entire purpose. The air gets more wet, but at the same time it gets colder.
Assuming a stationary system state, you have a constant airflow of hot dry air going into the system and a constant airflow of colder more wet air leaving the system. Depending on how fast the one flows in and the other flows out, you will reach a certain point along the vertical absolute water concentration axis, which will define how wet and how cold the air inside the system is. But the more wet the air is, the more cold it also is.
I think you wrongly assume that this spraying happens in a system like a closed greenhouse or a sauna, where the wet air doesn't escape while the heat keeps coming in. But that is not what is happening with these sprayers at all. The wet air escapes easily. Even if there is no airflow by itself the colder more wet air of course is heavier and sinks to the ground, so an air flow is created.
Well you seems to assume lots of theoretical things too! Like all vapour just expanding away. It probably lingers, lots of water on the floor just oozing wet air.
I sure don't know, but I do get that feeling it's not really that good when the temperature is very high. Especially between lots of buildings and no wind.
A slight breeze, and an open space like some large Plaza and the dynamics are very different obviously, but I was chasing the worst case, as if bad, it'd be quite dangerous.
You have feelings instead of knowledge. I gave specific thermodynamic explanations.
If you have worked with thermodynamics you'd know you need simulations to get even close to how things work in real world situations. Basic theory just isn't enough.