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The number of days over 90 degrees over the course of a year as seen in big cities has tripled in the past 20 years. The extreme heat is very unhealthy, even for fit people if they are not used to it. Extreme heat is typically not an endurance process but how you respond to it. Plenty of people just hole up in an air conditioned area. This works until the power browns out, blacks out, or in todays digitalized world, the power company changes the digital settings of the devices in your house that have remote control properties.

It is possible to acclimate your body to hotter temperatures by exercising under controlled conditions in an area that is 98 degrees F for 6 days. The article doesn't say how long it will last, with no hot weather happening for awhile, or where to find a place that is 98 degrees F for 6 days. 98 is 8 degrees above the point where heat is labeled as extreme heat. Normal exposure to warm weather over the summer months will make the body more able to handle warmer weather at the end of the summer than at the beginning.

It does not appear that people living in naturally warmer areas would be better off when everything is factored in. The heat waves of today are hotter, more often, lasting longer, and having more severe economic impacts than they used to. The number of people with preexisting conditions is big enough to offset the healthier members of the population. Preexisting conditions can be as simple as being unaware of what extreme heat can do. There are also the problems caused by the heat, such as drought, and power outages, which can be more extreme in economically disadvantaged or technologically underdeveloped areas.

Thanks, this may be extremely relevant.

I've just read a news item about an old road under a reservoir resurfacing and modern roads having to be gritted with sand to stop the tarmac bubbling and flowing out. All going to be part of the new normal. These events may have occurred previously, but not every year.
Last year in Ireland under drought conditions we were finding heritage sites never known to exist as they were covered, but patchy grass revealed the outlines.
We're having to adapt.

One good way to help yourself adapt to heat, is actually to lose weight, if you can afford to lose, that is. Nature around the world shows us that larger, heavier-built animals live in cold climes, while thinner, leggier ones live in hot climes. The elephant has big ears which are heat radiators. The giraffe could not survive where the walrus can.
Why Elephants Have Big Ears: And Other Riddles from the Natural World

Hot weather makes us content with salads, fruit, ices and drinks for a good part of the day. If you have a physical job, keep up the energy intake, but otherwise, take the opportunity to ease off on calories and don't pile them back on during the evening.
Don't drink sodas/ diet sodas. Drink water and fruit juice.
Carry a re-usable cup or bottle and refill from taps or drinking fountains.

Warmer temperatures mean more extreme storm events including flooding.

A report on the flooding of basements in NYC and why there are so many unregistered basement rentals; as we have been learning, the poorer inhabitants are suffering the most from climate change effects. Some tragic cases are covered. I might add this one to the thread on adapting to warmer temperatures.



"On Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that extreme weather caused by climate change meant New York required a "new set of ground rules" for those living below ground.

"We need a plan to evacuate folks who live in basements when we have extreme rain and flooding, he told MSNBC, announcing he would set up a task force to study the issue."

Planting trees and bushes for shade is the best step that can be taken, especially in cities. Walking in from the street to my front garden during the heatwave this summer, I could feel a drop of several degrees.
The leaves also transpire moisture so the air is cooled and feels more hospitable.
Birds come to take advantage of the shade too, including a female blackbird who came to my garden in distress.

In Spain and Portugal, I've seen that street trees are planted and allowed to completely shade the road sometimes - no pruning back except for traffic. The cities also place a large fountain in the middle of a square, and people come and sit on benches around the fountain or around the sides of their buildings.

We found a large former stone warehouse on the docks, had been turned into a restaurant and this was so open and airy inside, it did not need air con.

"Some animals are "shape-shifting" and have developed bigger tails, beaks and ears to regulate their body temperatures as the planet warms, according to a new study.

From Australian parrots to European rabbits, researchers found evidence that a host of warm-blooded animals have evolved bigger body parts, which could allow them to lose body heat more effectively."

Why Elephants Have Big Ears: And Other Riddles from the Natural World

They first starting changing their bodies in 1871. That means in 1971 when the first clean environment and recycling laws were being passed in the US we were already 100 years behind the curve. Catchup is no longer on the table, it's a whole new "game" for lack of a better word. Or maybe it's a whole new world.

"Adapt or die" warning. From UK's Environment Agency.



"We are currently heading for an increase in the global average temperature of just under 3C by the end of the century.

But the agency projects that even a smaller rise of 2C would have severe consequences:

Winter rainfall up by 6% by the 2050s and 8% by the 2080s (compared with 1981-2000)
Summer rainfall down by about 15% by the 2050s
London's sea level up by 23cm by the 2050s and 45cm by the 2080s
By the 2050s, peak river flows could be up 27% while summer flows could be down as much as 82%
An extra 3.4 billion litres of extra water needed every day before 2050, on top of the 15 billion used now
According to Ms Howard Boyd: "We can successfully tackle the climate emergency if we do the right things, but we are running out of time to implement effective adaptation measures.

"Some 200 people died in this summer's flooding in Germany. That will happen in this country sooner or later, however high we build our flood defences - unless we also make the places where we live, work and travel resilient to the effects of the more violent weather the climate emergency is bringing.""

"unless we also make the places where we live, work and travel resilient to the effects of the more violent weather the climate emergency is bringing."

I think the key thing here is moving out of places which can flood instantly but I don't know if that is possible any longer. I live on the higher section of a downward sloping side of a ridgeline, so you might think the run off would be okay. The short distance to the top would seem to lessen the amount of water that can come downhill, but the ridge itself actually forms a long stretched out U shaped structure which can collect a lot of water from a lateral flow along the long axis of the C shape going from the closed end (higher elevation) to the open end (lower elevation. Even the top of the ridge would have problems if the rainfall rate exceeds the run off rate.

That brings up the possibility of building on stilts or elevated platforms. Which ironically would look very similar to the houses built on stilts over waters and waterway ways that one would find in economically underdeveloped areas.

There was a plan, now thrown out, to rebuild the areas washed out by Super Storm Sandy around New York City and surrounding boroughs with everything placed on enormous concrete platforms creating vast plazas that wouldn't wash away, rot out, or get flooded.

A small town on California's southern coastline wants the fossil fuel firms to pay for their structural adaptations. Exxon is trying to say no.



"If the intent is to kill off the litigation against the oil industry, it’s not working. Officials from other municipalities have called Exxon’s move “repugnant��, “a sham�� and “outrageous��, and have vowed to press on with their lawsuits.

Dedina described the action as a “bullying tactic�� by the oil industry to avoid accountability.

“The only conspiracy is [that] a bunch of suits and fossil-fuel companies decided to pollute the earth and make climate change worse, and then lie about it,�� he said. “They make more money than our entire city has in a year.��

The city’s lawsuit claims it faces a “significant and dangerous sea-level rise�� through the rest of this century that threatens its existence. Imperial Beach commissioned an analysis of its vulnerability to rising sea levels which concluded that nearly 700 homes and businesses were threatened at a cost of more than $100m. It said that flooding will hit about 40% of the city’s roads, including some that will be under water for long periods. Two elementary schools will have to be moved. The city’s beach, regarded as one of the best sites for surfing on the California coast, is being eroded by about a foot a year.

Imperial Beach sits at the southern end of San Diego bay. Under one worst-case scenario, the bay could merge with the Tijuana River estuary to the south and permanently submerge much of the city’s housing and roads."

Sky News showed a segment on a river in Africa fed by melting glaciers. From the 1970s on, the glaciers started melting faster, so the people downstream got more water and agriculture thrived, feeding the populace. But the glaciers are now almost gone, and then there will be comparatively little water and little food.

This will be occurring in more regions around the world.

Gizmodo publishes the headline that there will be no adapting to extreme climate change.



They are only looking at the US, not even the Canadian town that burst into flames.
Commenters include personal statements about housing only getting flood coverage from a federal plan, and this coverage having to be written in to mortgages. And an area getting hundred-year floods every other year nowadays.

Sensibly we are informed that an ever-increasing amount of GDP will be taken up by - call it coast resilience plans, flood defences, urban adaptation, agri loss, etc. - and that is money that cannot be used for other purposes.

There are multiple money streams at work relating to the changing environment. While the results are hard to see from all the different ways of preparing for the future, the damage that is piling up, is not hard to see because it can last for years. The amount of material being damaged is increasing every year and the amount of damaged material that isn't replaced or repaired is increasing. It is an immediate indication of the state of affairs. The value of the amount of damage done to the US in 2021 was approximately 300 billion dollars. That is almost a billion dollars a day.

“A million seconds is 12 days. A billion is 1,000 times greater than 1,000,000. A billion seconds is 32 years.��
�� Chip Heath, Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers

/quotes/1110...

Chip Heath


The above refers to an American billion, a thousand million, which in Europe is called a milliard. Over here we say a billion is a million times a million.

Data centres in UK are collapsing from the heat. They need to be engineered to be better cooled, or to move capacity during summer to some more northerly building.

Article and good comment section in The Register.

Shipping on the Rhine is threatened as the river level drops.




"Less than a foot of water currently stands between European business as usual and a German supply chain crisis. Amid a record-breaking, continent-wide heat wave, the Rhine river has dropped to levels so low, that shipping on the waterway may soon become economically untenable or even impossible.
...

"Ships laden with commodities are heavier, and sink lower in the water than lighter ships. Navigating the river with a lighter load allows a vessel to travel at lower river levels. But there is a line of economic unfeasibility, where it no longer makes financial sense for a ship to voyage with such little weight, and where the value of the cargo becomes less than the cost of a boat’s fuel and crew needs.

The Rhine runs more than 760 miles from the Alps to the North Sea, winding through Germany but also parts of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, France, and the Netherlands. Along the way, it cuts through major cities like Basel, Rotterdam, Dusseldorf, Cologne, and Bonn. The river is widely considered the most important inland waterway in Europe. About 80% of goods shipped through Germany’s inland waterways rely on the Rhine, according to a report from CNBC."

A set of French apartment blocks needs better - everything. Bordeaux is hot. With windows sealed against hot air, families are getting mould and pests, there is no air con, no green spaces, fountains or shade.


"Six floors up, in the middle of the afternoon, Karine's apartment is an oven. "I don't have a thermometer, I'd rather not know. But we easily exceed 30°C," assures this assistant in human resources, who lives alone with her teenage daughter. To discuss, Karine prefers to settle down on the first floor, in the entrance hall. "It's already cooler, it's much better," she says. A tenant of the housing estate for thirteen years, she finds this summer "much more difficult than the others."

"Since July, we've been living in the dark and always wearing nothing but our underwear. In the afternoon, we catch up on the sleep we didn't get at night," she adds.

Facing high temperatures, this energetic 40-year-old tried to take matters into her own hands. "I drink three liters of water a day, I moved my shower from morning to afternoon, but it's not enough," she laments. She has installed fans, but the drafts make her sick. So she takes refuge under the few trees that line the city. "There could be more vegetation, it brings freshness," she suggests. And also better placed benches, meaning not in the sun three quarters of the day...""



Translated by RTE, and you can translate from French with Google.