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How the world copes with extreme heat

A patient suffering from heat exhaustion being wheeled into a hospital in Ahmedabad, India. Credit: Reuters

Many parts of the world are experiencing temperatures "a long way above average", as BBC Weather's Chris Fawkes puts it, forcing cities and healthcare systems around the globe to adopt emergency measures. In Delhi, reeling under daily temperatures crossing 40C (104F) since May, Dr Ajay Chauhan is leading a new heat stroke clinic. "In my 13 years of working here, I don’t remember signing a death certificate for heat stroke. This year, I’ve signed several," he told Soutik Biswas. At the clinic, doctors dunk feverish patients in icy waters to cool down. Many of them work outdoors or in poor conditions. Across the world, in Phoenix, Arizona, temperatures are expected to reach 45.5C (114F) on Thursday. In the area, where heat-related deaths have consistently risen over a decade, air-conditioned cooling centres are popping up to shelter homeless and low-income people from suffocating temperatures.

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• The background: Scientists say climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and intense. My climate and science colleagues look at the evidence.

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• Extreme weather: Human-induced climate change made May's extreme heat episode in the US southwest, Mexico and Central America around 35 times more likely, a report says.

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• Adapting to extreme heat: Sierra Leone was ranked as the third most vulnerable country to climate change. A project is using mirrors to make homes less hot.

WORLD HEADLINES

• Putin in Vietnam: The leaders of Vietnam and Russia have said they want to boost ties as the pair met in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

• Church and state: Louisiana has become the first US state to order that every public school classroom up to university level must display a poster of the Bible's Ten Commandments.

• In Canada: Justin Trudeau's government has listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, after years of pressure from opposition legislators and some members of the Iranian diaspora.

• In South Africa: The Democratic Alliance, which now forms part of the coalition government, has suspended an MP after an old video resurfaced online of him using slurs targeting Black Africans.

• Bronze age ship: Cargo from the remains of the oldest shipwreck to be found in the deep sea has been discovered in the eastern Mediterranean, Israeli archaeologists have said. Take a look.

UK ELECTION LATEST

The incumbent Conservatives' director of campaigning and his wife - a party candidate - are being looked into over a bet relating to the timing of the general election. Meanwhile, after SNP leader John Swinney suggested a second independence referendum should be triggered if his party won a majority of seats in Scotland, Glenn Campbell explores what the election could mean for Scottish independence. 

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