Extreme heat will change us

In a treeless street, under a scorching sun, the welder Abbas Abdul Karim works on a metal bench.

Everyone who lives in Basra, Iraq faces intense heat, but for Karim it is unforgiving.

You have to do your work during daylight hours to see the iron skillfully swirled for stair railings or welded into door frames.

The heat is so exhausting that you never get used to it.

“I feel like my eyes are burning,” she says.

Working outdoors in the scorching temperatures of southern Iraq isn’t just tough.

May cause damage long-term in the body.

We know Karim’s risk, because we have measured it.

By late morning, the air around Karim reached a heat index of 51.66 degrees, a measure of heat and humidity.

This created a high risk of heatstroke, especially with her warm clothes and direct sun.

Thermal images show the extra heat your equipment gives off, making your workspace even more special more dangerous.

The body’s struggle to sweat and cool down can result dehydration and put extra pressure on the kidneys.

Over time, this increases your risk of kidney stones and kidney disease.

The heart also works harder, making an effort to do it pump more blood to the skin and draw heat away from the body.

As Karim worked, our monitor noticed his pulse was rising, telling experts he had body temperature up about 3 degreeswhich is a dangerous strain on the heart.

Blood to Karim’s brain was probably reduced for an hour, as blood flow was needed elsewhere.

He felt unsteady and had to stop.

“I feel the heat coming out of my head,” she said.

What Karim was experiencing was not a heat wave.

It was an ordinary August day in Basra, a city on the frontline of climate change and a glimpse into the future of much of the planet as human carbon emissions warp the climate.

By 2050, nearly half of the world could live in areas with dangerous heat levels for at least a month, such as Miami, Lagos, Nigeria and Shanghai, according to projections by researchers from the Harvard University and the University of Washington.

As we followed the daily activities of residents of Basra and Kuwait City, we documented their exposure to heat and how it has transformed their lives.

What we saw revealed the huge existing gap between those who have the means to protect themselves and those who don’t.

We also saw an even more disturbing reality:

no one can escape completely from the debilitating heat.

The heat woke Kadhim Fadhil Enad from his sleep.

His family’s air conditioning had cut out and he found himself sweating in the darkness.

High temperatures would dominate the rest of their day.

For him and many others in Basra, the rising heat has disrupted working days and sleep schedules.

When Enad, 25, and his brother Rahda left for work shortly after 4 in the morning, it felt like 45 degrees outside.

Enad and his brother work in construction as labourers.

In the sultry summers of southern Iraq, that means hurrying to finish as much as possible before the sun comes up and the intense heat of the day sets in.

Even if they can adjust their schedule, as Enad did, and start their work in the middle of the night, it is still so hot that fatigue interrupts the working day, reducing productivity and income depletion.

Extreme heat is disrupting life around the world, including in Pakistan, India, Tunisia, Mexico, central China and other places.

And the higher temperatures rise, the more workers are affected.

The effects of extreme heat already account for hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars in job losses every year around the world.

It was 5:30 in the morning in the city of Kuwait when Abdullah Husain, 36, left his apartment to walk his dogs.

The sun had just risen, but the day was already sultry.

In the summer, he says, he has to take the dogs out early, before the asphalt gets so hot that they I burned his legs.

“Anything that happens after dawn is hell,” he said.

Husain, assistant professor of environmental sciences at Kuwait University, leads a very different life from Enad in Basra.

But the days of both are marked by an inexorable heat.

Basra and Kuwait City are only 128 kilometers apart and often have the same climate, with summer temperatures reaching triple digits for weeks on end.

But in other respects, they are worlds apart.

Both places produce oil, but Kuwait has produced great wealth and provided its citizens with a high standard of living.

This vast economic gap is evident in how people can protect themselves from the heat, a gap between rich and poor that is increasingly reproducing around the world.

Husain travels wide distances to work in an air-conditioned car.

Enad goes to work through streets littered with rapidly rotting garbage.

Husain teaches in a heavily air-conditioned university.

Even working at night, Enad can’t escape his world of heat.

Kuwait’s massive oil wealth allows it to protect its population from the heat, but these shields come at their own expense, affecting both culture and way of life.

When the heat arrives, people leave the parks and outdoor dining areas.

Slides, swings and other play equipment get so hot they burn children’s legs.

Most Kuwaitis They avoid going out.

This affects your health.

Despite the abundance of sunshine, many Kuwaitis suffer vitamin D deficienciesthat the body uses to produce.

Many are also overweight.

By the end of the century, Basra, Kuwait City and many other cities are likely to see many more dangerously hot days a year.

The number will depend on what humans do in the meantime.

Even if humans cut carbon emissions significantly, by 2100, Kuwait City and Basra will experience months of heat and humidity exceeding 39.4 degrees Celsius, much higher than they have been, researchers predict. of Harvard University in the last decade.

Long-term estimates are imprecise, but scientists agree the situation will worsen and could be catastrophic if emissions are not stopped.

In that scenario, Miami, for example, could experience nearly life-threatening heat half of the year

Husain, the professor, said most Kuwaitis don’t think about the relationship between burning fossil fuels and heat.

“People complain about it, but it’s not something that records an action or behavior change,” she said.

“They use it to get a tan or to go to the beach, but if it’s too hot they stay home with air conditioning.”

And because air emissions do not respect borders, Kuwait City and Basra will continue to warm whatever they do unless major emitters like the US and China change course.

Before Karim the welder was born in 1983, Basra was a city greener and fresher.

Groves of date palms mellowed the temperature and the canals that watered Basra’s gardens earned it the nickname “Venice of the East”.

Many of those majestic palm groves were cut down when Karim was a boy, so there were far fewer left when construction worker Enad grew up in the early 2000s.

But even then the city was still dotted with tamarisks, hardy shrubs that bloom with pink and white flowers each year.

Now, most of them are gone too.

Without them, Basra has become a city of concrete and asphaltwhich absorbs the sun and radiates heat long after sunset.

In the future, many people from all over the world will migrate to escape the heat.

But most likely there are many others like Karim and Enad who don’t have the resources to get to a greener country.

And wealthier countries that have already tightened their borders will likely make immigration even more difficult as climate pressures mount.

Karim and Enad dream of living elsewhere.

Karim wants a “greener” place, Enad a “cooler” place.

Enad hopes to get married and have children and raise them in a place that has “space for nature”.

“The houses will be made of wood and there will be a forest,” he said.