The cooler parts of the northern hemisphere are getting hotter. Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, and Canada is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world — a trend driven by both regions’ northernmost extremes. That means millions of people live in homes built for weather that no longer exists.
The implications could be deadly. In 2003, a heat wave in Europe killed at least 70,000 people, and last year record-breaking temperatures caused an estimated 61,672 heat-related deaths across 35 countries in the region. The risks are particularly acute for people who spend a lot of time indoors — Europeans and North Americans spend about 90% of their time inside — and for people unaccustomed to keeping their homes cool. Across Europe, less than 10% of people have air conditioners at home; while upping that percentage will help with the heat, AC also adds carbon emissions and strains power grids.
That leaves organic solutions, like those common in places with experience building for extreme heat. "We can definitely learn lessons from countries that have been facing hot summers for several years,” says Giorgos Petrou, a research fellow in building physics and urban modeling at University College London.