Welcome to the Meteorology Matters podcast. You
know, we often talk about extreme heat, and our
first thought usually jumps to the really serious
stuff, heat stroke, people dying, the absolute
worst cases. Yeah, the headlines. Exactly. It's
dangerous, no question. But what if? What if
the warming world is actually making us sick
in ways we don't even realize? Ways that go well.
way beyond those immediate life -threatening
events. It's a really important shift in how
we look at it, isn't it? For this Meteorology
Matters podcast, we want to kind of peel back
those layers, move beyond just the heat deaths.
OK. We're going to dig into some pretty new research
that's showing these broader health impacts of
rising temperatures, stuff that affects us in
ways we're only just starting to properly understand.
And while we're doing that, we're also going
to look at something pretty cool, these ancient
cooling ideas that are suddenly really relevant
again. Right. for new problems, it's fascinating
stuff. Yeah. And then finally, we'll get into
the economic side of it, how your ability to
stay cool globally is really divided. It's a
stark difference, yeah. Heat hits different places,
different people, really unevenly. Exactly. So
the goal today is to give you a really full picture
of how heat touches, well, pretty much everything,
our health, obviously, but also... like the global
economy. It's way more pervasive than you might
think. Hopefully it'll change how you think about
adapting to a hotter planet. Okay, so let's start
by maybe challenging some common ideas. Yeah.
When we talk about heat and health, the conversation,
historically anyway, has been really focused
on mortality. You know, deaths from heat. Sure,
that's what gets the attention. It's dramatic.
Right. But there's this new research, especially
coming out of California, that's shifting the
focus, looking more at the whole range of illness,
poor health, what scientists call morbidity.
Yeah, morbidity. It's a small word, but a huge
difference in perspective. It's about seeing
the whole iceberg, not just the tip. OK, explain
that. Well, this specific research looked at
a ton of data from California emergency rooms,
like 11 years worth, from 2006 up to 2017. Wow,
that's a lot of data. It is. And Carlos Gould,
he's an environmental health scientist, the lead
author on the paper. He pointed this out exactly.
He said, look, scientists have studied heat deaths
for decades. We know a lot about that. But our
understanding of the morbidity side, it's relatively
poor, as he put it. So this research is trying
to fill that gap. Precisely. Moving beyond just
the worst outcome. Death, to understand the everyday
toll. What actually happens to people's health
day to day when it gets hot? And what do they
find? Did it show a link? Oh yeah, very clearly.
Gould says, deaths are really just the tip of
the iceberg when you look at how temperature
affects society. The data showed this really
consistent trend. Between 2006 and 2017, ER visits
in California, they went up consistently as temperatures
went up. Every time it got hotter, more people
ended up in the ER. Exactly, not just a fluke.
A clear, persistent pattern. And that must put
a huge strain on the healthcare system. A massive
strain. Think about, it's not just a one -off
event, it's this ongoing pressure. You need more
beds, more staff, more supplies, the admin load
goes up. Every heat wave just adds to it. It
stretches the whole system thin. Yeah, you can
see how that would build up. It's not just about
treating individuals, it's about whether the
whole system can actually cope. And what kind
of illnesses were people going to the ER for?
Was it just heat stroke and dehydration? Well,
yeah, those were there, obviously. But what's
really interesting, maybe even surprising, is
the range of other things they found linked to
rising temperatures. Like what? Okay, so increases
in ER visits for things related to poison exposure.
Poison? How does heat link to poison? We'll get
into the complexities of that connection later,
but yeah, poison. Also more respiratory problems
and even issues with the nervous system. Wow,
so it's much broader than just, I got too hot.
Much broader. It really expands how we need to
think about heat's impact physiologically, maybe
even behaviorally. It's not just about the direct
thermal stress. Okay, so explain the physiological
stress part. How does heat actually do that?
Well, your body... is working incredibly hard
to cool down, right? Your heart has to pump faster,
sending more blood to your skin to try and release
heat. That puts a big strain on your cardiovascular
system. And your kidneys, they're working overtime
trying to hold on to water, which can lead to
dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, kidney damage.
So if someone already has health issues. Exactly.
If you've got pre -existing conditions, heart
problems, kidney disease, asthma, COPD, even
neurological stuff like MS, this extra stress
from the heat, it seriously increases your risk
of complications. Your body just doesn't have
the same reserves to cope. That makes sense.
And the study mentioned a specific group that
was particularly vulnerable. Yes, and this is
really stark. Children under five. Little kids.
Yeah. They showed up in emergency rooms at a
significantly higher rate than any other age
group on those hotter days. Why is that? Well,
Several reasons. Their bodies can't regulate
temperature as well as adults. They heat up faster
because they're smaller. And crucially, they
often can't tell you clearly when they're feeling
unwell or too hot. Right. They rely on adults
to notice. Totally. So they're incredibly dependent
on caregivers to recognize the signs of heat
stress and take action. That finding alone really
highlights the need for targeted help, doesn't
it? Absolutely. It screams for specific public
health actions. You know, maybe more accessible
cooling centers in neighborhoods with lots of
young families or better education for parents.
Eat. Because the risks for them are higher. Much
higher. Not just discomfort, but potentially
serious long -term health problems, even affecting
development if they get severe heat exposure.
Okay, now here's something that sounds a bit
confusing at first. You said heat is the most
lethal extreme weather. Right, meaning it directly
causes more deaths than things like floods or
tornadoes on average. But then most temperature
-related deaths globally aren't actually from
heat, they're from cold. How does that work?
Yeah, it seems counterintuitive, but it's likely
about exposure time. Globally, people just spend
way more time exposed to moderately cool temperatures
than they do to extreme heat waves. So it's more
about chronic exposure to cold versus shorter,
intense heat events. Exactly. That longer, more
pervasive exposure to cooler temperatures can
contribute to things like respiratory and cardiovascular
problems over time, maybe more subtly. Okay,
that makes more sense. And then climate change
adds another layer of complexity. Some models
suggest that as the planet warms overall, we
might actually see fewer total temperature -related
deaths. Fewer deaths because of less cold. Potentially,
yeah, fewer cold related deaths, but, and this
is a huge, but this effect would be incredibly
unequal. How so? Hotter, less wealthy countries.
They're projected to see a big increase in heat
deaths because they often lack the infrastructure,
the resources, the widespread AC to cope. Meanwhile,
colder, wealthier countries might see that decrease
in cold deaths and maybe even fewer heat deaths
because they have better ways to adapt. It highlights
a massive equity issue baked into climate change.
Which brings us to a really important ethical
point from Christy Eby. She's a professor at
the Center for Health and Global Environment.
She warns against this idea of trading off deaths.
from heat versus cold. Right, her point is powerful.
People are not fungible. You can't just balance
the books, saying fewer cold deaths makes up
for more heat deaths somewhere else. Yeah, that
feels wrong. It is wrong. Every life matters.
Every illness causes suffering. The goal of public
health, as Evie says, is to prevent as much harm
as possible, period. Whether it's from heat or
cold, it's about protecting everyone everywhere,
not treating people like statistics you can trade.
So back to Carlos Gould's point, deaths are just
the tip of the iceberg. Exactly. The huge unseen
part is all the illness, the discomfort, the
lower quality of life, the economic strain that
heat causes. And those climbing ER visits are
a direct measure of that strain on our public
health systems. It's like a silent crisis happening
under the surface. And having that detailed data
linking specific temperatures to morbidity, not
just mortality, that's what public health officials
really need. To plan better. Yeah, to design
interventions that don't just aim to stop people
from dying, which is obviously crucial, but also
reduce hospital visits, reduce illness before
it gets critical. It's about shifting from reacting
to crises to actively preventing them, building
resilience. And Gould mentions something interesting,
that while his data was California specific,
the mortality rates they saw for extreme heat
were actually pretty consistent with the rest
of the U .S. Right, which suggests that even
if the exact numbers for ER visits might differ
region to region, the underlying patterns of
how heat impacts health could be similar elsewhere.
Making this California study potentially very
relevant nationwide. Absolutely. A vital piece
of the puzzle for public health everywhere. And
you mentioned those less obvious ER visits, poison,
respiratory, nervous system issues. Yeah, the
study specifically identified increases in visits
for those categories as temperatures rose. It
really broadens what we might traditionally call
heat -related illness. So the poison thing, for
example. It's not like heat itself is poisonous.
No, not directly. But maybe heat changes behavior.
People store chemicals differently, maybe in
hotter places. Or there are more pests, so more
pesticide use. Or power outages lead to generator
use and carbon monoxide issues. The links can
be Well, okay. It's a whole system. It really
is. Heat isn't just a thermal problem. It's a
systemic challenge affecting health in complex
ways. And the fact that kids under five are hit
hardest, that's a crucial takeaway. Absolutely
critical. Highlights their vulnerability and
the need for specific protection. So Gould's
summary really sticks. Even when heat doesn't
kill, it hurts a lot. That says it all, doesn't
it? It's about that quiet erosion of health and
well -being that demands a much bigger response.
Okay, so this research is clearly groundbreaking,
showing these wider health impacts, but it's
also important to be realistic, right? It's not
always easy to draw a perfectly straight line
between heat and some of these specific illnesses.
That's a really fair point and something researchers
themselves acknowledge. Robert Mead, he's a research
fellow at Harvard's School of Public Health studying
heat's effects. He points this out. It can be
tricky to definitively link everything directly
back to heat. Why is that? Is it just statistics
or something else? Well, it could be statistical
noise that's always possible in big data sets.
But Mead suggests it's more likely reflecting,
as he put it, a very complex interaction between
heat and people's behavior that causes this rise.
OK, like the poison example we touched on. Exactly
like the poison example. Heat doesn't make poison.
But maybe extreme heat leads people to behave
differently in ways that increase their risk.
storing things improperly, using more bug spray
because pests are worse, maybe even medication
degrading faster in heat. It's often an indirect
chain reaction. So it's not just physiology,
it's behavior triggered by the heat. Precisely.
The links aren't always obvious or linear. And
Christy Eby, who we mentioned earlier, she also
brought up another complicating factor, right?
Something the California study didn't fully account
for. Yes, and it's a big one, especially for
California. Wildfires. Ah, right. Heat and wildfires
often go together. They do. Wildfires are increasing
because of climate change, and they pump huge
amounts of smoke into the air. We know that smoke
is a major driver of cardiovascular and respiratory
problems, even deaths. And wildfires often happen
during hot, dry weather. Exactly. So you have
heat and smoke potentially happening at the same
time. If the study couldn't fully separate the
effects of breathing wildfire smoke from the
effects of the heat itself, some of those increased
ER visits for heart or lung issues might be partly
due to smoke, not just the heat. So it adds another
layer of complexity to figuring out the exact
cause. It absolutely does. It doesn't mean the
heat findings are wrong, but it means we need
to be nuanced in interpreting them, especially
for things like respiratory illness in fire prone
areas. Future research needs to try and account
for multiple factors like heat and air quality
together. That makes sense. And there was another
limitation EB mentioned about the timing of the
data. Yeah, this one's pretty significant, too.
The data they analyzed stopped in 2017. OK. So
think about the heat waves we've had since 2017.
The past seven, eight years have seen some incredibly
intense, record -breaking heat events globally
and definitely in California. Right. It feels
like it's getting worse faster. It does. And
society's awareness, public health responses,
maybe even how individuals behave during heat
waves, all that might have changed since 2017
because we've experienced these more extreme
events. So the picture might look different,
or even worse, if we had data up to today. It's
very possible. The 2006 -2017 data is incredibly
valuable, but it's a snapshot from before some
of the most extreme recent heat. It might actually
be underestimating the current scale of the problem.
OK, so bearing those complexities and limitations
in mind, What are the bigger takeaways for public
health? Well, Carlos Gould's hope, really, is
that even with those caveats, this detailed data
helps officials broaden their thinking to understand
who needs protection during heat waves moving
beyond just preventing deaths. Thinking about
the whole community's health. Exactly. Because
the societal costs are huge. As Gould said, these
illnesses can affect kids, working families,
reduce our productivity, and strain our hospitals
and communities. Yeah, the ripple effect. They're
massive. Kids get sick. Parents miss work. Adults
get sick. Productivity drops across the board.
Hospitals get strained. Maybe other care gets
delayed. It's this quiet drain on our collective
well -being and economy. It comes back to that
quote, even when heat doesn't kill, it hurts
a lot. That really sums it up. It's the chronic
damage, the erosion of public health that demands
a more comprehensive response than maybe we've
had before. So health systems need to adapt.
They absolutely have to. Develop strategies that
tackle the full range of heat problems, morbidity,
not just the mortality. Look at community design,
behavior, vulnerable groups. Build resilience
from the ground up. Every illness we prevent
makes society healthier and more productive.
OK, so we've talked about the hidden health impacts,
which honestly can feel a bit overwhelming. It
can be heavy stuff, yeah. But now let's shift
gears to something really fascinating, maybe
even hopeful. How some really old ideas ancient
wisdom might actually hold keys to dealing with
modern cooling challenges. Right. Looking to
the past for future solutions. And the challenge
is huge. Take India, for example. Get this. Only
about 20 percent of households there own an air
conditioner or even just a basic cooler. Fewer
than a third have refrigerators. Wow. Just pause
on that 20 percent. That leaves hundreds of millions
of people incredibly vulnerable as temperatures
rise. It's staggering. And India had its hottest
year on record in 2024. Brutal heat. over 700
estimated deaths just that year from the heat.
And researchers are warning now that something
like 76 % of India's population faces high or
very high heat risk. It's not just uncomfortable,
it's a threat to survival, health, daily life.
Think about food spoilage without fridges too.
It's a massive crisis needing solutions. But
amidst this, there's this simple ancient innovation
making a comeback. Terracotta. Baked Earth. Yeah,
terracotta. It sounds so basic, but it's brilliant.
Its use goes back at least 3 ,000 years, like
to the Bronze Age, Harappan civilization in the
Indus Valley. They used it to store water. OK,
so how does it work? How does clay cool things
down? It's all about evaporation. Adithya Pradyumna,
an environmental health researcher, explains
it really well. Terracotta is porous, right?
It has tiny holes. So if you put water in it
or on it, The water slowly seeps into those pores
and evaporates from the surface. And when water
evaporates, turns from liquid to gas, it needs
energy. It pulls that energy in the form of heat
from its surroundings. Scientists call it the
latent heat of vaporization. It literally pulls
heat away. Exactly. It carries heat away as the
water turns to vapor, actively cooling whatever
is inside the pot or even the air around it.
It's like sweating evaporation from your skin
cools you down. Terracotta does the same thing,
passively. That's amazing. So simple. And that
simplicity is its superpower, especially its
affordability. Earth and terracotta pots. They
still cool water in rural India today. No electricity
needed for maybe a dollar each. Wow, a dollar.
Yeah. It's effective, cheap, requires no power
grid. That makes it incredibly accessible and
resilient, especially where electricity is unreliable
or unaffordable. It's culturally embedded, too.
So how are people using this ancient idea today?
in modern buildings. Architects and designers
are getting really creative with it. They're
incorporating terracotta into what's kind of
passive cooling strategies. Passive cooling,
meaning not using machines. Right. Using smart
building design, natural materials like terracotta,
clever ventilation, shading all to regulate indoor
temperatures naturally, working with physics
instead of fighting it with energy -guzzling
AC. What does that look like in practice? We're
seeing things like perforated terracotta tiles
used as screens on the outside of buildings.
They create a thermal buffer. Ventilated facades
made of terracotta that encourage natural airflow,
letting hot air out and drawing cooler air in.
So the building itself helps manage the heat.
Exactly. And some designs even intentionally
run water over or through terracotta elements
to maximize that evaporative cooling effect,
really boosting the temperature drop. And does
it actually work? Does it make a difference?
Oh, yeah. Research shows these passive cooling
approaches, often using terracotta, can cut the
need for air conditioning by up to 70 % in dry
or semi -dry climates. 70 %? That's huge. It's
massive. Think about arid places, parts of the
U .S. southwest, the Middle East, North Africa,
places getting hammered by heat. Reducing AC
load that much saves enormous amounts of energy,
reduces carbon emissions, and takes pressure
off the grid. Yeah, that grid strain is a major
issue. It really is. So this is a win -win. lower
energy use, more resilient infrastructure, ancient
wisdom solving modern problems. Are there companies
actually doing this now? Definitely. In India...
There's Ant Studio in Delhi. They have this project
called Coolant. They basically wrap concrete
buildings in a terracotta second skin. Like insulation,
but breathable. Kinda, yeah. And Monish Sirapurapu,
the founder, says they're seeing average temperature
drops of 6 to 8 degrees Celsius. That's about
10 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit across dozens of
sites. And it works even better where it's drier.
Wow. 6 to 8 degrees Celsius is a noticeable difference.
It's significant, as Aditya Pradumna points even
that kind of drop makes it much easier for the
human body to cool itself, especially indoors.
Less stress, better sleep, better health. Any
other examples? Yeah, there's a threshold in
Bengaluru. They repurpose recycled terracotta
into breathable building facades, so it's sustainable
too. Cool. And then there's Midi Kool in Gujarat.
This is amazing. The founder, Mansukh Pai Prajapati,
he's created a clay refrigerator. Refrigerator's
made of clay. No electricity. None at all. They
use the same evaporative cooling principle, and
they can keep food fresh for three to five days.
That's incredible, especially for places without
reliable power. It's truly invaluable. Bajapati
says many customers just can't afford to run
normal fridges, so this is a durable, affordable
alternative. It tackles cooling and food preservation,
huge impact on health and reducing food waste.
So these terra -cotta solutions, they have benefits
beyond just cooling a room or keeping food fresh?
Absolutely. Niyati Gupta from WRI India sees
them as complementary to existing systems. They
help reduce our reliance on the fossil fuel powered
grid for cooling. Which is a massive energy hog.
Huge. She calls terracotta a potential game changer
for both the energy sector and the construction
sector. If buildings can stay cooler naturally,
we need less energy intensive AC. That means
fewer emissions, less strain on the grid, lower
costs, it's building a more sustainable and equitable
future using lessons from the past. Okay, so
we've hit the health impacts, the hopeful ancient
solutions. Now let's turn to a pretty stark reality.
The huge economic and social gap when it comes
to staying cool. Yeah, this is where you really
see the inequality play out. It's almost like
a tale of two continents sometimes. Okay, picture
a really hot summer day. In the U .S. for many
people, right? You wake up, your AC's been humming
all night, nice cool room. You drive or commute
in an air -conditioned vehicle to an air -conditioned
office. Maybe you step outside for lunch, but
mostly you're shielded from the heat. It's just
expected. Integrated into life and work. Okay,
got it. Now the contrast. Same hot day, maybe
an average European city. You might have slept
terribly, tossing and turning, sticky. Your commute
might be a nightmare crowded train, maybe delayed
because the heat is literally buckling the tracks
or messing with signals. That happens. Oh yeah,
infrastructure struggles. And if you work from
home, maybe you just have a fan blowing hot air
around. Productivity tanks, you feel miserable.
That sounds rough. And the key difference is
just AC. Fundamentally, yeah. The prevalence
and reliability of air conditioning. It's not
just about comfort. It's about whether society
can function smoothly when it gets extremely
hot. So where AC is common, the economic hit
from heat is lessened. Exactly. Businesses keep
running. People can concentrate. Health impacts
are somewhat buffered. But where it's less common
or the grid can't handle the demand, you see
real economic costs, social disruption. Everything
gets harder. And some experts are saying this
is becoming a serious economic threat, especially
in Europe. Yeah, Taco Engelar, he's a climate
tech executive. He doesn't mince words. He says
heat is becoming an existential threat to some
European economies. Existential. That sounds
extreme. But think about it. He points to the
strain on infrastructure, especially the power
grid. Many European grids just weren't built
for the massive peaks in demand when everyone
turns on AC during a heat wave. So the overload,
blackouts. Precisely. Blackouts, brownouts. And
what happens then? Businesses shut down. Supply
chains get messed up. Transport stops. Health
emergencies get worse because people can't cool
down and hospitals might lose power. It becomes
this vicious cycle with real measurable economic
losses. It threatens stability. Wow. You don't
often think of heat waves causing that level
of economic disruption. But it's happening. And
we see these connections globally, too. Remember
that tragic story of the street sweeper in Barcelona
who died from heatstroke? Yeah. Awful. That wasn't
just a personal tragedy. It sparked labor protests
across southern Europe. It really highlighted
the danger for outdoor workers, the social justice
angle of heat exposure. There's a human face
on it. And it fits the bigger pattern. July 2025,
recorded as the third hottest ever globally.
It's not just Europe. Cities in Southeast Asia
are facing high risks from both floods and heat
waves. It's a global challenge hitting urban
areas hard. Which brings us back to something
we talk about a lot. Decarbonization isn't just
about the environment, is it? Not at all anymore.
It's core economic strategy. Engeler makes the
point that for Europe, competitiveness increasingly
depends on developing their own renewable power.
For energy security. For energy security, absolutely,
but also specifically to handle these climate
challenges like heat. If your industries can't
operate because it's too hot or the grid fails,
you lose your edge globally. So investing in
renewables and stronger grids is also about climate
adaptation and economic resilience. Totally.
It means reliable local power to keep things
running, keep people cool, keep the economy productive,
even when it's scorching outside. It reduces
reliance on volatile fossil fuels, stabilizes
costs. Climate action becomes economic necessity.
So the ability to cool down, whether it's high
tech AC or ancient terracotta, It's not a luxury
anymore. Not at all. It's becoming fundamental,
a determinant of health, economic stability,
basic well -being, and the gap between those
who have access and those who don't. That's a
major fault line opening up in our warming world.
Hashtag, tag, tag outro. So that brings us to
the end of this Meteorology Matters podcast.
We've covered a lot today, really digging into
the unseen cost of the warming world. We look
at how heat impacts our health in ways that go
far beyond just the headlines about fatalities.
Yeah, looking at that broader spectrum of illness,
the morbidity and the real strain it puts on
public health systems everywhere. And then we
explored those amazing ancient cooling methods
like terracotta, seeing how simple old ideas
can offer. really powerful, sustainable solutions
for today. Right. That blend of past wisdom and
modern innovation. And finally, we touched on
that stark economic divide, the AC gap, and how
access to cooling shapes everything from daily
life to global competitiveness. It definitely
makes you think differently about summer, about
health, about how we build our cities and live
sustainably. We hope this look at heat changes
your perspective a bit. And if you want more
insights on meteorology and climate. Definitely
follow meteorologist Rob Jones. He's on Instagram
as meteorologist. On TikTok as TV meteorologist.
And on YouTube, look for Rob Jones Hurricane.
That's also where you can find the Meteorology
Matters podcast playlist. So as we wrap up, here's
a thought to leave you with. As our planet keeps
warming. What other ingenious solutions, maybe
ones hidden in plain sight from our past, will
we need to embrace or invent? How do we ensure
not just survival, but real well -being and comfort
for everyone, no matter where they live or what
they can afford? That's the big question, isn't
it? Find equitable solutions for a hotter future,
something to really chew on.