Extreme heat recently melted roads in the U.K.; hit a record-shattering 120°F in Chino, Calif.; and led to more than 70 deaths in Quebec. These cases illustrate a vexing paradox for scientists and policymakers: air conditioning keeps people cool and saves lives but is also one of the biggest contributors to global warming.
Two new reports underscore the scale of the challenge. On July 16, Sustainable Energy for All, an NGO that is dedicated to clean energy and is affiliated with the U.N. and World Bank, said that 1.1 billion people across the globe lack access to adequate cooling. And a May analysis from the International Energy Agency (IEA), an intergovernmental organization, shows that just 8% of the 2.8 billion people living in the world’s hottest regions own an air conditioner, compared with more than 90% in places like the U.S. and Japan.
For those billions, gaining access to air-conditioning isn’t just a luxury. Without cooling, heat exhaustion can disrupt the body’s functioning and lead to extreme ailments like organ failure and, eventually, death. The number of people who die of heat-related illness could grow to more than 250,000 by 2050, according to a World Health Organization report. Everyone else will become less productive as they toil under the sun, with some parts of Asia and Africa facing up to a 12% decline in work hours by 2050 as a result of heat stress, according to the Sustainable Energy for All report. More broadly, a lack of cooling often also means that people cannot ensure food safety or store medicine.
Bu hikaye Time dergisinin July 30, 2018 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Time dergisinin July 30, 2018 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
The D.C. Brief - When some of the biggest donors to conservative causes made explicit their electoral opposition to a second term for Donald Trump way back in February 2023, it came as something of a shock to the Republican orbit.
When some of the biggest donors to conservative causes made explicit their electoral opposition to a second term for Donald Trump way back in February 2023, it came as something of a shock to the Republican orbit. After all, the powerful network organized under the auspices of billionaire industrialist Charles Koch had officially remained neutral in Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns, a sign of how uncomfortable his allies were with the nominee whose positions were so far afield from their own.
The Age of Scams- Why you're constantly baited by grifters and more vulnerable than you think
We are living in the golden age of scams. U.S. consumers lost a record $10 billion to fraud in 2023, according to the Federal Trade Commission, a 14% increase over 2022. That tally is almost certainly an undercount. More than three-quarters of victims, including Cotelingham, don't report to authorities that they've been defrauded. We are constantly baited by scammers-by text, by email, by phone. The average smartphone owner in the U.S. gets an estimated 42 spam texts and 28 spam calls per month, according to RoboKiller, an app for screening calls.
Are mosquitoes getting more dangerous? - It's not news that mosquitoes carry a number of viruses and parasites that can be harmful to human health, including malaria, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, West Nile virus, and eastern equine encephalitis.
Mosquitoes seem to be everywhere this year, and they're not just a nuisance at outdoor gatherings. Health experts say they're carrying some serious diseases—a fact that's hitting home in the U.S., as some towns in Massachusetts have shut down public parks and other outdoor areas in the evenings, after mosquitoes in the region were learned to be carrying eastern equine encephalitis, a rare but deadly virus. And Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's former top infectious-disease expert, was recently hospitalized with a West Nile virus infection he is believed to have acquired from a mosquito buzzing through his backyard.
Dana White The Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO on manhood, his friendship with Donald Trump, and the future of the fight business
Why do you think Donald Trump asked you, and not a family member, to introduce him at July's Republican National Convention? Listen, he and I are really, really good friends. What I think, and from what his kids have told me, I am the one guy he connects with. They call it \"bro-out\"-we bro-out together.
There can be only one Sally Rooney
A FEW YEARS AGO, SOMEONE POSTED a photo of a man walking through Brooklyn with a copy of Conversations With Friends tucked in the back of his trousers, the words SALLY ROONEY peeking out above his waistband. It was an accessory that telegraphed as much about his personal style as his choice in attire did. Less than a month earlier, the book critic Constance Grady had published an essay titled \"The Cult of Sally Rooney,\" deeming it \"aspirational\" to be a fan: \"If you read Sally Rooney, the thinking seems to go, you're smart, but you're also fun and you're also cool enough to be suspicious of both 'smart' and 'fun' as general concepts.\"
Kate Winslet puts Lee Miller in the frame
KATE WINSLET LOVES TABLES. SHE LOVES THEM SO MUCH that the Oscar-winning actor collects them. There is nothing fancy about these antiques, but they enchant her. \"It's the knots and the whorls, the shape and feel,\" she says. \"They can feel like old friends, and there is something emotionally charging about an old table that comes with a history-I find imagining what that might be enormous fun.\"
ALFONSO CUARÓN GOES LONG
The Oscar-winning filmmaker finds pathos in our lonely present in his first TV miniseries
LATINO LEADERS
17 trailblazers CHANGING THEIR industries, THE U.S., AND THE world
A Question Of Balance
THE NAVAJO NATION HAS FIRST RIGHTS TO THE WATER AROUND IT, YET PAYS THE MOST AND GETS THE LEAST
Trump Stumped
The former front runner is struggling to adjust to Kamala Harris
