It’s time to name heatwaves for what they actually are |
In Melbourne Tuesday, the temperature hit an extraordinary 45.
According to the state’s Emergency Management Commissioner, we’re experiencing our most significant heatwave since Black Saturday.
Much of the southeastern Australia is baking, just as it did in 2009 when over 400 people died in Victoria and South Australia as a consequence of the heat – twice as many as in the bushfires that followed.
Australia is getting hotter, fast. Extreme heat is our deadliest climate hazard – it kills more people than floods, storms, and bushfires combined.
But because the link between heat and premature deaths is underappreciated, we’re not recognising and addressing this health crisis as we should.
We can do better, by telling the truth about heatwaves, and by naming them.
Extreme heat strains every system in the body. It stresses the heart, destabilises diabetes, worsens respiratory conditions and intensifies mental health crises.
Emergency departments feel it first – on extreme heat days presentations spike, ambulance demand surges and hospital beds fill–with individuals suffering heat exhaustion, dehydration, falls, and cardiac events.
Mortality data shows an increase of up to 25 per cent in excess deaths during Black Saturday, Black Summer or the extreme heat hitting southern states this week.
Heat exacerbates inequality by disproportionately affecting the elderly and very young, those with chronic illnesses, outdoor workers and people in poorly insulated homes.
These........