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The deadly heat wave that hit West Africa and the Sahel last month would not have been possible without the human-induced climate crisis. The BBC based on new scientific research. During the heat wave, hundreds of people died as a direct result of the extreme temperatures.
In Mali, for example, one of the worst affected areas, temperatures exceeded 48 degrees Celsius. According to the researchers, the extreme heat is due to the use of fossil fuels. In addition, industrial deforestation is responsible for the Earth not being able to cool sufficiently. In West Africa and the Sahel it was 1.5 degrees warmer than normal during the day and 2 degrees at night. “For some people only a small difference, but for the victims that extra heat meant the difference between life and death,” the researchers said. The majority of the victims were over 60 years old.
As a result of the climate crisis, the Earth will experience extreme weather events more often. The researchers point out that last month’s heat wave occurred at most once every two hundred years before the industrial age, but now the chance of this occurring is once every twenty years. If temperatures continue to rise, which is expected because the consumption of fossil fuels is only increasing for the time being, such heat waves will become more common.
