Extreme temperatures — mostly heat — are projected to kill as many as 2.3 million people in Europe by the end of the century unless countries get better at reducing carbon pollution and adapting to hotter conditions, a new study says. University of Washington public health and climate scientist Kristie Ebi weighs in. 

As summer begins in the United States, some local officials and health experts are sounding the alarm about the dangers of extreme heat, whose effects can be deadly but hard to trace. Kristie Ebi, professor of global health and of environmental and occupational health sciences at the UW, is quoted.

As Earth’s climate continues to change from heat-trapping gases spewed into the air, ever fewer people are out of reach from the billowing and deadly fingers of wildfire smoke, scientists say. Already wildfires are consuming three times more of the U.S. and Canada each year than in the 1980s and studies predict fire and smoke to worsen.

Kristie Ebi, professor of global health and of environmental and occupational health sciences at the UW, is quoted.

In June 2021, the “heat dome” that struck the Pacific Northwest set 128 all-time high temperature records across the state. Two years after that event, a collaborative effort led by two University of Washington teams has drawn up recommendations for how people and groups across the state could prevent future heat-related illness and save lives.

Dr. Jeremy Hess, professor of global health, of emergency medicine and of environmental and occupational health sciences at the UW, and director of CHanGE, is quoted.