Anthropogenic emissions and urbanization increase risks of compound hot extremes in cities

Despite mounting evidence of detrimental health impacts from hot days or nights due to their high intensity and/or long duration, their occurrence in close sequence-a compound hot extreme-has received little attention but may bear large health risks. A new study published in Nature Climate Change revealed how the compound hot extremes affect human health, as well as the drivers of observed changes, and future risk in cities of eastern China. Urban compound hot extremes across eastern China increased by 1.76 days per decade from 1961 to 2014, and the fingerprints of urbanization and anthropogenic emissions could be detected. "Our study reveals that the public health risks from anthropogenic increases in compound hot extremes have been increasing and will continue to increase over cities in eastern China." Said Dr. WANG Jun from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the first author of the study. According to the study, the uncovered age-specific vulnerability to compound hot extremes implies further elevated health burdens due to rapid aging of the urban population there. More information: Jun Wang et al, Anthropogenic emissions and urbanization increase risk of compound hot extremes in cities, Nature Climate Change. Citation: Anthropogenic emissions and urbanization increase risks of compound hot extremes in cities retrieved 4 November 2021 from https://phys. org/news/2021-11-anthropogenic-emissions-urbanization-compound-hot.