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The Heat Is On

A scorching summer made the newspaper front pages and website home pages in 2024 with stories about record high temperatures, power grids struggling to keep up with the demand for air conditioning and more than a thousand heat-related deaths of pilgrims on hajj.

Sadly, 2024 wasn’t an aberration. Soaring temperatures are expected to become ever more common. According to a Guardian survey of many of the world’s leading climate scientists, 80 percent expect temperatures to rise at least 2.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Half of these experts foresee at least a 3C increase. Only 6 percent thought temperatures would be held to the internationally agreed 1.5C limit.

Consequences could be severe and far-ranging as heat fuels famine, conflict, fires, storms and more.

In this issue of KUST Review, we look at a few of the looming dangers, such as how warming oceans feed the red tides that damage economies and even threaten national security. Guest columnist and Khalifa University epidemiologist Dean Everett discusses how a warmer Earth might lead to more human diseases. And senior science writer Jade Sterling describes how climate change might affect locations around the world.

We also look at the ways science is helping to mitigate these dangers, with stories on how reflective surfaces might keep buildings cooler; why “sponge cities” work with nature to prevent floods and conserve water; and how artificial mangroves use the sun’s heat to desalinate water.

You’ll find even more in these pages, on our website, www.KUSTReview.com, and on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and YouTube @KUSTReview.

So page, click, subscribe and follow to get the best of our coverage of science in the Middle East and around the world in English and in Arabic.

As always, be informed and stay curious.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi

Editor-in-Chief