There is scientific consensus that rising humidity and heat pose a serious and growing threat to humanity. At temperatures as low as 30 ̊C, under conditions of high humidity, the human body struggles to cool down by sweating. Death can result.
World Leaders,
We, the undersigned, come from the world’s leading research and academic institutions, and consist of a diverse range of climate scientists, public health experts, policy makers and industrialists.
There is scientific consensus that rising humidity and heat pose a serious and growing threat to humanity. At temperatures as low as 30 ̊C, under conditions of high humidity, the human body struggles to cool down by sweating. Death can result.
As temperatures increase, so does the potential for episodes of high temperature and high humidity beyond what humans and many mammals – including livestock, an important source of protein globally – can endure for more than a few hours.
These impacts will not be equitable. Society’s most vulnerable, such as the elderly, young children and the poor, will suffer the most. At population scale, this is called Lethal Humidity and its impacts will be felt globally, especially in tropical and sub-tropical regions.
Some of the most populous regions on Earth are at risk, including parts of India, China, the United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Northern Australia and many other countries across Africa, Asia, South America and Europe.
Rising humidity is also driving some of the most violent weather the world has seen and the threat will only grow as the world gets hotter. We must prepare for abrupt environmental and social change.
Positive Power
World Leaders, we must move beyond all policies that inhibit the development and deployment of renewable technology in order to achieve the defossilisation of our economy.
At least four key policy shifts are urgently required:
The direct impacts of lethal humidity with heat on human mortality will be widespread, as will the indirect effects associated with loss of labour, migration and geopolitical destabilisation. As leaders, we must immediately address both – but never one at the expense of the other.
We can still create a world fit for our children and future generations if we act now.
We call on you to endorse the Positive Power Plan.
Date: 3 December 2023
For more information about the Lethal Humidity Global Council visit www.lethalhumidity.org
Signatories
Dr Sneha Malhotra, Chief Technology Officer, Office of Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India
Professor Steven Sherwood, Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia
Professor Li Zheng, Executive Vice President, Institute of Climate Change, Tsinghua University
Professor Peter Huybers, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University
Dr Guang Zhang, Research Meteorologist, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, USA
Professor Paromita Chakraborty, Atmospheric pollution, Centre for Research in Environment, Sustainability Advocacy and Climate Change, Institute of Science and Technology
Professor Deqing Zhu, School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University
Dr Jonathan R. Buzan, Climate Physicist, Climate and Environmental Physics and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Switzerland
Professor Sagnik Dey, Institute Chair, Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Dr Chloe Brimicombe, Climate Scientist and Extreme Heat Researcher, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz & University of Reading
Dr Vidhya Venugopal, Professor & Country Director (NIHR GRC NCD-EC), Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Faculty of Public Health, Sri Ramachandra Institute and Higher Education, Chennai, India
Emeritus Professor Trevor McDougall AC FRS FAA, University of New South Wales Sydney Winner Prime Minister's Prize for Science 2022
Professor Ambarish Dutta, Epidemiology Indian Institute of Public Health, Bhubaneswar Public Health Foundation of India
Professor Nerilie Abram, Climate Science, The Australian National University, Australia Professor
Arnab Dutta, Interdisciplinary Programme in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Dr James Smith MRCGP FFPH, Sustainability Lead, Cambridge Public Health Interdisciplinary Research Centre, University of Cambridge
Professor Ollie Jay, Heat and Health, Director of the Heat and Health Research Incubator, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Australia
Dr Fahad Saeed, Heat and humidity effects; Regional Lead: South Asia and the Middle East, Climate Analytics
Dr Amy Booth, Clinician and Researcher, Climate Change and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford
Professor Tim Lenton, Climate Change/Earth System Science, Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, UK
Professor Kurian Joseph, Director, Centre for Climate Change and Disaster Management, Centre for Environmental Studies, Department of Civil Engineering, Anna University
Dr Benjamin Jones, Oxford Centre for Global Health Research, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford
Dr Andrew Forrest AO, Minderoo Foundation, Tattarang and Fortescue; Honorary Research Fellow, University of Western Australia
Professor Ken Smith, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge
Professor Stephen Luby, Department of Medicine, Stanford University
Scientia Professor Matthew England, FFA Centre for Marine Science & Innovation, University of New South Wales Australia
Dr Brian O’Callaghan, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford; United Nations Economic Commission for Africa; Acadia Infrastructure Capital
Professor Srinivasan Keshav, Computer Science, Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge
Professor Callum Roberts, Marine Conservation, Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, UK
Associate Professor Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, Climate scientist, UNSW Canberra, Australia
Dr Emma Ramsay, Humid heat in urban settlements, Nanyang Technological University Singapore
Professor Katrin Meissner, Climate scientist; Director, Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia
Dr Tony Worby, Chief Scientist, Minderoo Foundation
Dr Shanta Barley, Chief Climate Scientist, Fortescue; Adjunct Lecturer, University of Western Australia
Ms Kylie Walker, CEO Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering
Professor Anjal Prakash, Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Indian School of Business
Professor Michael Ellwood, Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University
Dr Laurence Wainwright, Sustainability, Enterprise & Environment, University of Oxford
Emeritus Professor Sarah Dunlop, Minderoo Foundation and The University of Western Australia
Professor Marilyn Raphael, Geography, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Professor Jacob G. Foster, Sociology, UCLA; External Professor, Santa Fe Institute
Professor Alastair Iles, Sustainability Transitions Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management University of California, Berkeley
Dr Shannon A. Bonke, Research Fellow of King’s College Cambridge and Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge
Professor Douglas McCauley, Director, Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, University of California Santa Barbara
Dr John Hunter, Climate and sea level scientist, University of Tasmania
Dr Larry Marshall, Director, Fortescue; Chair, American Chamber of Commerce in Australia; Governing Council of Australian National University
Dr Vishal Dixit, Interdisciplinary Programme in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
Professor Kamiar Mohaddes, Judge Business School & Kings College, University of Cambridge
Professor Anne-Louise Ponsonby, Head, Neuroepidemiology Research Group, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Professor Stephen F. Ackley, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Texas San Antonio, Fellow of the American Geophysical Union
Bodhi Patil, Youth Ambassador, Dept. Environment & Sustainability, University of British Columbia
Professor Jean-Louis Tison, DSTE-IGEOS-Glaciology laboratory – Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Professor Ian Allison, D.Sc., FAA, University of Tasmania, Australia
Dr Maria Luiza Pedrotti, National Centre for Scientific Research, Sorbonne
Dr Sylvia Earle, Ocean Elder
Dr Tom Matthews Senior Lecturer in Environmental Geography, Department of Geography, King’s College London