35
to headache and nausea. If the core temperature con-
tinues to rise past 40°C to 41°C, organs start shutting
down and cells deteriorate. Mora, at the University of
Hawaii, described 27 different ways the body reacts
to overheating, from kidney failure to blood poison-
ing when the gut lining disintegrates. All can result
in death within a few hours.
Mora’s team analyzed data on 783 lethal heat
waves spanning 35 years, in order to quantify which
weather conditions posed the greatest mortality risk.
It turns out the old cliché that it’s not the heat but
the humidity holds true. Even relatively mild heat
2
Five of the 10 deadliest typhoons
on record to hit the Philippines have
occurred in the past 15 years; the
worst, Typhoon Haiyan, killed 6,300
people and displaced some 4 million
6
Jacobabad, Pakistan, used to see
one or two weeks a year of 120°F-plus
weather—now, say residents, it can
be that hot for months on end; similar
extreme heat plagues the region
1
Hotter, drier weather in the
Middle East has dried up the Tigris-
Euphrates river basin, forcing mass
migration into ill-prepared cities,
exacerbating regional instability
4
The world’s deepest lake is essential
for biodiversity: 75% of species living
in Russia’s Lake Baikal can be found
only there; thanks to climate change,
these creatures are starting to die out
ASIA
About 40% of the 10 million people in
Jakarta live below sea level, thanks to
rising oceans; Indonesia’s President
recently announced plans to move the
country’s capital to Borneo
3
Sea-level rise has led to more intense
storms and floods in the world’s most
populous river delta, the Ganges;
similar problems face Vietnam’s
Mekong and China’s Pearl River deltas
5
6
4
5
3
2
MAP BY JING ZHANG FOR TIME
