It’s not all sun and games.
Rising temperatures mean thousands could die from heat exposure in the Big Apple by 2080 if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t reduced, a new study shows.
Scientists from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health examined temperature-related deaths in the city and found more than 3,000 people could die each year by 2080 in New York City alone if efforts aren’t made to reduce greenhouse emissions and adapt to rising temperatures — a 400 percent increase in heat-related deaths.
The biggest perpetrators of emissions? Skyscrapers.
“It’s the huge amount of building stock. Energy used for heating and cooling is the biggest component of greenhouse emissions in the city,” the study’s senior researcher, Dr. Patrick Kinney, told The Post.
After skyscrapers, the next-biggest gas perpetrators are cars, buses and trucks.
The study was published in the Environmental Health Perspectives Journal and is being used by the New York City Panel on Climate Change.
Kinney said that by the 2050s, weather in New York City could feel a lot more like Virginia or Georgia and areas in the South Bronx and East Harlem would be the most affected.
“Parts of the city that have less greenery and parkland and places where more elderly people live alone and where there’s more poor people are the most affected,” Kinney said.
New York usually has about two major heat waves per summer. Kinney said we could be seeing as many as five to seven by the 2050s.
He called the potential rates of death “alarming” and said lawmakers already know what they need to do to fix this.
“If the city works hard to protect the population then we can avoid that … Things like heat warning systems … assisting people with using AC and helping them afford the energy for air conditioning,” Kinney said.
“We know what to do, it’s just a matter of motivating decision makers to do the right thing.”
Heat causes more fatalities in New York than any other weather event. Part of the problem is the “urban heat island effect.”
Heat islands are created in urban areas when surfaces are covered by buildings and other structures. The sun’s rays are absorbed by these surfaces during the day and re-radiated at night, causing temperatures to be on average seven degrees warmer than surrounding areas. Under certain conditions, it can be as much as 10 to 20 degrees higher.
On a sunnier note, researchers found New Yorkers may actually be getting more resistant to the heat.
“New Yorkers are becoming less affected. The effects of a heat wave have diminished a little bit and we’re hopeful that will continue,” Kinney said.