# Mecca is getting dangerously hot

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** Simon Clark
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnfK0XvR5EQ
- **Дата:** 05.06.2026
- **Длительность:** 1:52
- **Просмотры:** 29,951
- **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/52216

## Транскрипт

### Segment 1 (00:00 - 01:00) []

Mecca is getting dangerously hot. This year, the estimated 1 and 1/2 million Muslims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca to perform Hajj have been exposed to 40° temperatures in May, which isn't normal or it wasn't. This new research has found that May temperatures in Mecca now mirror conditions seen in the extremes of summer prior to 1980. Climate change has increased the average temperature in the region by 3 and 1/2 degrees to over 32°. The peak temperatures are the most worrying though. They've increased by 2° and while peak temperatures of over 40° in May were previously an extreme outlier, now they're expected every 2 or 3 years. These are dangerous temperatures, especially given that the Hajj requires pilgrims to spend long periods outside over several days. Authorities in Saudi Arabia are treating this as a major medical operation to keep people safe, but we can't rely on just water stations and misting fans alone. We need to tackle the root cause here, climate change and our dependence on fossil fuels, which ironically Saudi Arabia has a long way to go in. The Hajj follows the lunar calendar and so it moves approximately 11 days back in the Western calendar each year. So, it has passed through the summer months for now, but it didn't get through the summer months unscathed. In 2024 for instance, there were over a thousand heat-related deaths in the Hajj. We hoped that with it being in May this year, things would have cooled down, but no such luck. So, what happens the next time Hajj takes place in the summer in 2050? What will temperature extremes be like by then? Climate change is shrinking the safe window that the Hajj can take place in, threatening the lives of millions of people. If we want to keep the Hajj survivable, we have to tackle climate change.