translated from Spanish: Heatwave has already killed at least 500 people in Canada

The heat wave that began a week ago in Canada has already killed at least 500 people, in addition to dozens of wildfires and flooding in the west of the country, and is a direct consequence of the climate crisis, according to experts. Lisa Lapointe, the coroner’s director for the province of British Columbia, the region most affected by the “heat dome” that began to affect Canada’s Pacific coast on June 25, said friday night that the number of sudden deaths recorded in the last week now stands at 719.Lapointe explained that this figure is three times higher than what is normal for that period, so nearly 500 deaths are the result of the heat wave that shot up thermometers in the province to unprecedented figures, such as 49.6 degrees Celsius in the interior of British Columbia.” We are releasing this information because it is considered likely that the extreme weather conditions That British Columbia has experienced over the past week have been a significant factor contributing to the increase in the number of deaths,” Lapointe said in a statement. But the province’s forensic director added that the number will continue to rise in the coming days as the information is updated, as many of the people who have died are high-aged individuals who lived alone in homes without air conditioning or who were not prepared for high temperaturas.DE 3 to 500 DEATHS IN FIVE YEARSTo understand the unusual and extreme weather conditions experienced on the coast. of the Canadian Pacific during the past week, Lapointe noted that in the past five years there had only been three heat-related deaths in the province. The “heat dome,” as the weather phenomenon consisting of a mountain of hot air that has “got stuck” in the upper layers of the atmosphere is known, has not only caused hundreds of deaths but also fires and overflowing rivers. Saturday’s data from the British Columbia Wildfire Service indicates that there have been 245 fires in the last week and that, currently, 176 are active, of which 76 started in the last two days. Almost 70% of the fires have been caused by lightning that have found the perfect dry conditions to start forest fires. In 15 hours between Wednesday and Thursday, 113,000 lightning was detected in British Columbia.One of those fires is the one that has consumed in recent days the entire small town of Lytton, in the interior of British Columbia. Lytton was front page last Tuesday in media around the world when thermometers in the town reached 49.6 degrees, the new all-time temperature record in Canada.After three consecutive days of temperatures between 45 and 49 °C, a forest fire consumed 90% of the population in minutes. It is feared that the flames also caused at least two fatalities in the town of about 250 inhabitants. Today, the “heat dome” is located in the interior of Canada, in northern parts of the provinces of Manitoba and Ontario that this Saturday are under extreme heat alerts. Over the past few days, the message from the experts has been clear: this is just the beginning.” Global warming, we have proof that it is real. Unfortunately we are already experiencing it, it is not the future. It’s here, so I hope people will take the time to prepare as we’re likely to see this more often,” Natalie Hasell, a meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, told local television station CTV. On June 2, shortly before the start of the heatwave, the Canadian Institute for Climate Options, an independent government-funded organization, issued a prophetic study entitled “The Health Costs of Climate Change.” The report noted that “climate change is not only an environmental and economic threat, it is also a threat to public health.” Climate change,” the paper added, “will worsen existing health inequalities and increase costs to Canada’s health care system and the economy unless governments work together to invest in preparedness and prevention.”

Original source in Spanish