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The rise of the truly cruel summer
Deadly heat is increasingly the norm, not an exception to it.
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Pilgrims arriving at the base of Mount Arafat on June 15. Saudi Arabia said over 1,300 people died during the haj amid intense heat.
PHOTO: AFP
The Economist
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In Japan it starts with the pulsating song of cicadas; in Alaska, with salmon swimming upstream. However it begins, summer in the northern hemisphere – where more than 85 per cent of the world’s population live – soon involves dangerous levels of heat. This year is no exception – indeed, it carries the trend further. In Saudi Arabia more than 1,300 pilgrims died during the haj, endured 40 days above 40 deg C
That this summer looks set to be punishing should not be a surprise. Global average temperatures have broken records for every month of the past year. And the hot El Nino phase of the oscillating system of Pacific currents and winds called Enso only recently ended. But it would be wrong to see this summer as exceptional in today’s world.
