HONG KONG:William Yu is giving a tour of a Hong Kong apartment where each of the threebedrooms has been divided into a separate flat - part of a lab he has set up toshow how many families live in small, crowded and hot spaces with no airconditioning or fresh air. "Even if there is a window, there is noventilation and some flats are very scary," said Yu, of the homes on HongKong's Chun Tin street. Outside the window, black smoke and pounding noisesrise from the Hop Lee metal and scrap paper shop on the dead-end street ofdilapidated tenement buildings in the Hung Hom district.
The World GreenOrganization Yu founded has set up the apartments to show how some vulnerablefamilies live in one of the most expensive and densely-packed cities on earth -and how they might cope with global warming. Average summer temperatures inthis city of 7.4 million people have risen swiftly over the past century,according to a study by researchers including Emily Chan, who directs theCentre for Global Health at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Temperaturesinside these illegally-divided flats are 6 to 7 degrees Celsuis hotter thanoutside, and research shows heat in some of them rising from a former peak of36C to closer to 40C in the height of summer, according to Yu. "In thepast we used to say, 'Don't stay outdoors for a long time exposed to intensivesunlight, otherwise you will get heatstroke,'" said Yu. "Now we havefound the opposite in the subdivided flats: Don't stay indoors for a long timeas that's bad for your health."
Yu instead tellsfamilies to go to a shopping mall with strong air-conditioning and not to keepwindows open because of the air pollution outside. This is but one example ofhow warming is hitting Hong Kong's vulnerable hardest in this steamy city thatlast week hosted an international forum on heat risks from climate change.Global experts on health, weather and climate flocked to the former Britishcolony to try to find ways to manage what Joy Shumake-Guillemot, who leads thejoint office of the World Health Organization (WHO) and World MeteorologicalOrganization (WMO) in Switzerland, called "the silent emergency that heatposes to health".
As part of theeffort, they launched the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN), madeup of experts from more than 30 countries, all keen to work out how to dealwith growing heat extremes as the world continues to break heatwave records.While typhoons and fires grab headlines, heatwaves kill more people than anyother weather-related disaster, though the deaths are rarely attributed toheat, the GHHIN said. With more people moving to cities globally, the risks arerising as well, it said. "Heat affects everyone," saidShumake-Guillemot. "From healthy athletes and outdoor workers, to theelderly and people with pre-existing medical conditions ... many people simplydon't realize how serious dehydration and heat stress can be."
Steamy city
The subtropicalcity of Hong Kong has a unique set of heat challenges and opportunities thatmake it a useful case study. Its dense urban living, combined with a humidclimate, means growing heat threats, with average high temperatures in thesummer hitting 31 or 32 degrees Celsuis. The concrete, skyscrapers and lack ofgreenery in inner city areas lead to what is coined the "urban heatisland" effect, which means the city gets - and stays - hotter thansurrounding more rural areas. That particularly affects the city's most vulnerableliving in tiny, subdivided apartments, Yu said. Chan said hospital recordsshowed that an increase in high temperature from 29C to 30C was linked with a 4percent jump in deaths in urban areas with particular heat vulnerability,
The rate ofadmissions to hospitals also rose 4.5 percent for every jump of 1C above 29C, astudy by her team showed. There is "not a single health outcome that isnot affected" by soaring heat, Chan said. Faced with growing heat threats,policy makers, urban planners, academics and non-governmental organizations areworking together to tackle the problem, Chan said. The Hong Kong Observatory,for instance, has created a heat index that measures temperature, humidity,wind speed and other measures and warns the public when key thresholds arepassed.
It is alsoworking with a senior citizens' organization to see how weather data could helpgrowing numbers of elderly people - who are particularly at risk - cope withtemperature extremes. The observatory also works with urban planners to helpdesign effective layouts for the city and plan how buildings fit, taking intoaccount micro-climates in different areas. It has plans to install sensors atstreet level to see how hot and steamy life there gets, as well as usecrowdsourcing to create real-time weather forecasts on heat impacts and risksto people.
Planning ahead
All of this makesHong Kong a heat pioneer in Asia, Chan said - and heat experts hope to learnfrom its experiences and those of other cities as the world becomesincreasingly urbanized. "We need to take steps to educate the public onhealthy behaviours they should take up, and train medical professionals to bemore attentive to heat stress symptoms in patients," saidShumake-Guillemot. Helping cities plan ahead to accommodate extremetemperatures and become more liveable in the face of them, as well as bettercoordinating emergency preparedness to manage heatwaves, will be key, she said."The likelihood of falling sick from heat has increased for everyone,"Shmake-Guillemot said. Heat experts "are taking this new realityseriously, and are working to find solutions to keep people healthy in awarming world." - Reuters