By Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
One of the worst heat waves in recent years continues to stalk the state of California. Millions around the world have experienced the ravages of extreme weather, which is becoming more frequent due to climate change. Hell has broken loose and is claiming lives.
The warmer days and nights bear the imprint of global warming and may offer a glimpse of the fate that lies ahead for California: as greenhouse gas emissions overheat the planet and action is not enough to slow it down.
During the recent heat wave, which particularly affected the southwest of the country last week, temperatures in excess of triple digits were recorded, and some of them have even broken some historical records.
An example of this is what happened on June 16 in Death Valley, one of the hottest areas of the planet and is located in the state of California, when it recorded a temperature of 129 degrees Fahrenheit (over 53 degrees Celsius).
The highest temperature observed in that area had been 134° F in 1913. Death Valley also approached this record when it reached 130° F in August of last year.
While on June 17, the National Weather Service in the San Francisco Bay Area noted that at least 7 record high temperatures were broken in the area.
In Redwood City, the thermometer reached 103° F degrees that same day, surpassing the 100° F record set in 1945, more than 75 years ago.
But that's not all, in addition to havoc such as floods and fires, a recent study revealed that about 5,500 Americans die annually because of the phenomenon known as heat wave.
For Dr. Kristie L. Ebi, a professor at the University of Washington's Center for Health and the Global Environment, "Higher temperatures kill. But almost all of those deaths are preventable.
So "the concern for the future is that as temperatures continue to rise, mortality will continue to increase during the summer," he said during a press conference held by Ethnic Media Services.
For her part, Aradhna Tripati, associate professor at UCLA's Institute for Environment and Sustainability, the high price of climate change has already begun to be paid with the loss of loved ones in natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods and fires.
"So we're already experiencing it. And the people who are affected will carry the scars of that for the rest of their lives."
