Summer 2023 Heat

By Ella Spirtas 

Due to ongoing climate change, the summer of 2023 was the hottest on record, leading to monumental consequences including the exacerbation of natural disasters, causing harmful effects on global populations. 

Throughout the summer, wildfires blazed across Canada and Hawaii. According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, over 880 fires were lit, with 580 classified as “out of control.” These fires released clouds of fine particulate matter, otherwise known as PM2.5, into the atmosphere. This matter, while made up of particles far too small to be seen by the human eye, can cause health issues ranging from headaches to heart palpitations.

The wildfires in Hawaii, while fewer in number and shorter in duration, had equally devastating effects. According to the New York Times, 97 people died due to fires in Maui, which were described as the “largest natural disaster in Hawaii's state history” by the governor of Hawaii, Josh Green. 

In both cases, the origin and spread of the fires were, in large part, due to the summer’s record-high temperatures. According to the New York Times, the extreme heat in Canada made drought-inducing conditions at least twice as likely to develop. Similarly, according to University of Virginia engineering professor Venkataraman Lakshmi, the wildfires in Maui were caused by flash-droughts. These events only occur if land undergoes a period of intense heat and active winds for around two to four weeks, such as during a heatwave. 

Apart from their contribution to destruction through fire, rising temperatures also wreaked havoc through severe flooding which occurred across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Libya experienced the most catastrophic flooding, with the U.N. reporting over 1,100 flood-related deaths. According to Jung-Eun Chu, an atmospheric and climate scientist at the City University of Hong Kong, “If the climate warms, if the (ocean) surface becomes warmer, the atmosphere can hold more moisture.” She also pointed out that, with an increase in global warming, extreme weather that used to be rare is bound to become more frequent.

Evidently, the heatwaves of summer 2023 had profound effects on millions of lives, from firefighters in Quebec and Maui to citizens in Libya. Due to this significant impact, it is important to mention that these disastrous events could have been prevented, or at least delayed, through governmental action to combat climate change. Many are hopeful that this influx of climate-related disasters will spur legislative action, but people have yet to see these hopes come to fruition.