Scientists think we need to pay attention to a measure of heat and humidity – and it’s edging closer to the limits of human survivability
n March, April and May this year, India and its neighbours endured repeated heatwaves that exposed more than a billion people to dangerously hot conditions. India broke several temperature records. The warmest March in more than a century was recorded across the country and a new high of more than 49C was hit in Delhi in May.
Recent research has found that we may actually already be nearing the threshold values for human survivability of temperature and humidity for short periods in some places of the world – a measure known as the “wet-bulb” temperature – and that this threshold may actually be far lower than previously thought.Wet-bulb temperature combines dry air temperature with humidity – in essence, it is a measure of heat-stress conditions on humans.
Humans usually regulate their internal body temperature by sweating, but above the wet-bulb temperature, we can no longer cool down this way, leading our body temperature to rise steadily. This essentially marks a limit to human adaptability to extreme heat – if we cannot escape the conditions, our body’s core can rise beyond the survivable range and organs can start failing.co-authored by Kenney this year found that the real threshold our bodies can tolerate could be far lower.
“Previous studies projected that this would happen several decades from now, but this shows it’s happening right now,” said lead author Colin Raymond, a climate scientist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory“The times these events last will increase and the areas they affect will grow in direct correlation with global warming.”
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