Baldwin quoted in Science on extreme heat & humidity

AirUCI faculty Jane Baldwin is quoted in an August 4th article in Science that discusses the debate among physiologists and epidemiologists over the effects of humidity vs. temperature on human health and the death rate in times extreme heat.  Jane is a renowned expert on this topic and maintains that humidity matters: at a given temperature, more humidity makes it harder for the body to maintain a safe core temperature and ward off heat stroke. Other epidemiology studies have found little to no correlation.  “No one had directly said: ‘Look, these two fields are going along in parallel with entirely different conclusions,’” says Jane, who highlighted the conundrum at a Columbia University workshop on extreme heat in July. “And if this continues, this could be a real problem for projecting impacts of climate change.”  Read the article