Ajit Niranjan

Eleni Myrivili, whose job is to help cities prepare for extreme heat, says many people do not understand how deadly it can be

Sat 29 Jul 2023 01.00 EDT

It is “shocking” how little people know about the danger of hot weather, the United Nations global chief heat officer has said, as high temperatures bake cities across the northern hemisphere and politicians backslide on climate promises.

A study this month found that extreme heat in Europe last summer killed 61,000 people, most of whom were women and older people. As well as killing people through heatstroke, hot weather can push the bodies of people with heart and lung disease into deadly overdrive.

“It’s total cognitive dissonance that this information is not common knowledge or part of our collective subconscious,” said Eleni Myrivili, the chief heat officer for the UN’s human settlement programme, who served the city of Athens in a similar role until June last year.

She said many people, particularly in the Mediterranean and Middle East, mistakenly believed they were used to hot weather and able to cope with it. “People are just starting to realise that this is another beast that we’re dealing with.”

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