Temperatures this high for such long periods have created favorable conditions for the development of uncontrolled, vast, and persistent wildfires, which spread more quickly and have burned millions of hectares of greenery, also impacting air quality with record carbon emissions.
Heatwaves have lasted weeks instead of days, and in some parts of the world, such as Europe and the Caucasus, they are now considered by the WHO as the leading cause of weather-related deaths. Every year, around 500,000 people die worldwide due to extreme heat, which has now become a significant public health issue.
With atmospheric warming, hotter air evaporates water and can intensify droughts more quickly. Extreme droughts, which would not have occurred without global warming, have devastated the lives of millions of people and, according to the UN, represent an unprecedented emergency on a planetary scale, leading to food shortages and famine. Each season is worse than the previous one, and the situation is deteriorating because water scarcity is compounding an already compromised scenario. Even though the anomalies of recent years are the result of a combination of factors, including the influence of El Niño between 2023 and 2024, climate change is effectively overriding the impact of other natural phenomena on the climate. This has been highlighted by the World Weather Attribution, an academic collaboration that scientifically demonstrates whether and how recent extreme weather events have been influenced by climate change.
