Opinion | In this ‘era of global boiling’, heat has become a health issue for the world

Last week, the World Meteorological Organisation said it was “extremely likely” that July would be the world’s hottest month on record. In response, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres declared that “the era of global boiling has arrived”.

At the same time, the El Niño weather phenomenon is aggravating climate warming and scientists predict that heat records will again be shattered next year. El Niño refers to the warming of sea surface temperatures that occurs every few years, typically concentrated in the central-east equatorial Pacific.

This year so far has seen extreme heat – and weather – around the world. In northwestern China’s Xinjiang, temperatures hit a high of 52.2 degrees Celsius in the township of Sanbao on July 16. Days later, Beijing experienced its 27th consecutive day hotter than 35 degrees.

In April, Malaysia suspended outdoor activities in school and the wearing of school uniforms because of the heat. In Singapore, May was the warmest month on record, with an average temperature of 29.5 degrees, while New Delhi recorded a blistering 49 degrees in May – and then its wettest day in July in over 40 years.

In Europe, Spain and Portugal suffered from excess heat-related deaths and disruptions to agriculture because of heatwaves. In June, red and orange heatwave alerts were issued in most of France.

In July, Rome reached a historically high temperature of 41.8 degrees while Sardinia and Sicily experienced intense heatwaves. Warnings of a third heatwave of 46 degrees were issued in Greece at the end of the month after wildfires broke out on Rhodes and Corfu. In North America, record-breaking daily maximum temperatures of over 43 degrees were reported in Phoenix, Arizona.