"The author of a new study said the combination of blackouts and extreme heat “may be the deadliest climate-related event we can imagine.”"
"WASHINGTON — The growing risk of overlapping heat waves and power failures poses a severe threat that major American cities are not prepared for, new research suggests.
Power failures have increased by more than 60 percent since 2015, even as climate change has made heat waves worse, according to the new research published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Using computer models to study three large U.S. cities, the authors estimated that a combined blackout and heat wave would expose at least two-thirds of residents in those cities to heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
And although each of the cities in the study has dedicated public cooling centers for people who need relief from the heat, those centers could accommodate no more than 2 percent of a given city’s population, the authors found, leaving an overwhelming majority of residents in danger."
Christopher Flavelle reports for the New York Times May 3, 2021.
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