Last month was the hottest August ever recorded with modern equipment

It’s been a sweltering, deadly hot summer in the Northern Hemisphere. On Wednesday the U.N.’s climate agency, the World Meteorological Organization, and the European climate service Copernicus reported that last month was the hottest August ever recorded with modern equipment. It was also the second hottest month measured, only behind July 2023.

By 2050, over 5 billion people– probably more than half the planet’s population – will be exposed to at least a month of health-threatening extreme heat. That’s up from 4 billion in 20-30 and 2 billion at the turn of the century.

More than 200 cities across the country, including Washington DC were under heat advisories this week. This summer there has been a rise in heat-related fatalities, and companies have been under pressure to protect outdoor workers, and officials from small towns all the way up to the White House have been scrambling to respond.

So what impact are these record-breaking temperatures having on our lives, our health and our economies, here at home and across the world? We speak to Bloomberg climate reporter Zahra Hirji.