Bangladesh’s elderly population could face extremely high health risk for three months of the year. Bangladesh is not alone on this list; India and Pakistan also appear on it. Researchers at Stanford University in the United States have studied the impact of rising temperatures across different age groups.
US researchers assessed the potential impact of accelerating global warming on three different age groups. The study found that if global temperatures rise by 3 degrees Celsius, elderly people in regions such as South Asia and the Gulf could face unbearable temperatures around the clock for three straight months of the year. The study identified countries with high poverty rates and inadequate home cooling systems as the most at risk. That list includes countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Niger. The research report, published in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health, states that rising temperatures driven by climate change pose a greater risk to elderly health than conventionally believed. The report, led by Stanford University researchers, was published at a time when a severe heatwave is under way in the Northern Hemisphere, which has already killed many people.
Such studies have previously used a measurement method called “wet-bulb temperature,” which factors in humidity to assess how much heat the human body can tolerate. But according to the study published in The Lancet Planetary Health, earlier research was conducted mainly on young, healthy adults. That meant factors such as older people’s reduced sweating, comparatively weaker hearts, and various pre-existing health conditions did not receive adequate attention in earlier research. The US researchers therefore used data from recent wet-bulb studies examining the effects of high temperature and humidity specifically on people over 60. In doing so, the researchers accounted for elderly populations worldwide. Based on different levels of global warming, they built a model of how heat would affect the health of three different age groups by the year 2100. In their conclusions, the researchers said unbearable temperatures would be felt across a much wider area and for much longer periods, meaning far more people would be affected than previously estimated. The report states that if global temperatures rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with the pre-industrial era, 22 percent of the world’s population over 60 will be forced to endure unbearable temperatures for at least one month every year.
For every additional degree of warming, another billion people would face this situation, and under those conditions, they would have to spend roughly another month exposed to heat and humidity beyond what their bodies can normally tolerate. To avoid this scenario, researchers have called for reducing emissions of the greenhouse gases driving the temperature rise. They have also recommended prioritizing protection for elderly and vulnerable populations to cope with future heatwaves. Research has found that most heat-related deaths occur indoors, which is why scientists believe it is essential to ensure access to air conditioning and other home-cooling measures.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report