6/30/26 - Heat

Andrew Pulrang

30 Jun 2026 • 4 min read

Whew!

It's going to be hot this week where I am, in Northeastern New York State. But our little burst of heat is nothing compared to the massive heat wave blanketing Europe. I went looking for articles on how high temperatures affect people with disabilities, and three of them are below. Note: the second piece is from September, 2025. I shared it because it had the most information specifically about heat emergencies and people with disabilities.

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Europe's heatwave linked to 1,300 deaths, WHO says, as Germany hits record 41.7C

Neil Murphy, BBC - June 28, 2026

"Temperature records were broken across the continent again on Sunday – including in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic – as the extreme heat continued to move east ... In a post on X, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 1,300 excess deaths had been recorded since 21 June 'linked to high temperatures in Europe' ... 'Heat stress is often called the 'silent killer' - and European homes, workplaces and schools were not built for these temperatures,' he said."

No one left in the heat: For disabled people, heat waves are a human rights crisis

Puneet Singh, Open Global Rights - September 29, 2025

"Extreme heat is the most visible face of climate change, and yet its impact on disabled people remains invisible. If we are to build a world resilient to climate change, we must dismantle the structural ableism that leaves millions to suffer in silence. As Delhi and cities across the Global South brace for longer, deadlier summers, the question remains: Will we continue to design heat wave responses for the non-disabled majority, or will we finally center those who are most at risk?"

Three ways climate action can be more inclusive for 1.3 billion disabled people

Carina Fearnley and Rhiannon Hawkins, The Conversation - June 26, 2026
Source: Disabled Journalists Association

"These staggering statistics show the need to place disabled people, who are some of the most vulnerable, at the centre of climate change negotiations. In emergencies, additional barriers put disabled people at greater risk. These include inaccessible evacuation routes, power outages when electricity is required for equipment, and an increased risk of certain infectious diseases."

Here in the US, where air conditioning is much more common than in Europe, heat waves still sometimes prompt state governments to help fund air conditioners for disabled people who don't have it and either can't afford to buy the units, or face other barriers to having it installed. This rarely happens quickly or at a high enough scale, but it's something. Do governments in Europe offer programs like this? Another resource disabled people are sometimes encouraged to turn to is public "cooling centers." These are larger community spaces that are air conditioned, and can serve as temporary shelters from the heat, similar to evacuation centers for floods, earthquakes, or other natural disasters. Might that be a more feasible option in Europe, where it may be harder to justify widespread air conditioning for individual homes? Or, will air conditioning end up becoming more common as climate change keeps breaking heat records summer after summer? Most of all, I am curious about how disability communities and organizations in Europe are addressing and educating the public about the unique effects of heatwaves on elderly and disabled people. If anyone has any information or thoughts on this, please let me know at: apulrang@icloud.com.

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