Heat wave: We either change our habits or perish

Tourists cool down in a swimming pool at the Coast. This as a heat wave hit the country. [PHOTO: GIDEON MAUNDU/STANDARD].

NAIROBI: The last few weeks have witnessed abnormal heat waves, which some people attribute to the spring equinox, or the period when the sun stands directly above the equator, a phenomenon that happens twice a year.

On social media, some said we should not venture outdoors during certain periods of the day.

“Please stay indoors, especially from 12-3pm daily. The temperature will fluctuate till 40 degrees Celcius. Please keep everyone hydrated. Everyone should consume about three litres of fluids daily. Monitor everyone’s high blood pressure as frequent as possible,” read one message. We were even told to place a new candle outside and see how quickly it would melt!

Then there are those who have blamed the recent El Nino in some parts of the world for the abnormal heat.

In all this hit-and-miss diagnosis, it becomes difficult to tell where the truth lies and why 2016 is proving to be the hottest year ever.

But experts are pointing out to one thing: Climate change. Simply put, our combined efforts are at the heart of the overbearing heat you have been experiencing.

According to Prof Michael Mann, director of Penn State Earth System Science Centre, it pays to look back over the years and assess the impact of climate change over the earth’s temperatures before looking for easy scapegoats.

“El Nino was responsible for a paltry 0.1?C of the abnormal warmth. In other words, we could still have set an all time global temperature record even without the help of El Nino,” Mann wrote in The Guardian early this month.

In short, the effects of El Nino in raising global temperatures are very small in comparison to human efforts in producing greenhouse gases.

According to experts, this becomes clear when we compare the rise in temperatures over the Arctic where El Nino is said to have the least interference.

Record hot years should occur every 150 years, yet, 1998, 2005, 2010, 2014-16 have broken the records with each successive year being hotter than the preceding one.

In all these cases, experts argue that such heat-runs were 130,000 times likely with human interference than without.

Well then, endure the heat wave for now with the full knowledge that our actions are largely to blame. We either change our habits or perish.

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