Kuwait, among world’s hottest places, lags on climate action

A woman feeds stray cats at the marina in Kuwait City, Feb. 11, 2022. Last summer, birds dropped dead from the sky and shellfish baked to death in the bay. Yet Kuwait stayed silent as the rest of the region's wealthy petrostates joined a chorus of nations setting climate goals ahead of last fall's U.N. climate summit in Glasgow. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) A woman feeds stray cats at the marina in Kuwait City, Feb. 11, 2022. Last summer, birds dropped dead from the sky and shellfish baked to death in the bay. Yet Kuwait stayed silent as the rest of the region's wealthy petrostates joined a chorus of nations setting climate goals ahead of last fall's U.N. climate summit in Glasgow. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

By ISABEL DEBRE / Associated Press March 21, 2022 6 min read

JAHRA, Kuwait (AP) – It was so hot in Kuwait last summer that birds dropped dead from the sky.

Sea horses boiled to death in the bay. Dead clams coated the rocks, their shells popped open like they’d been steamed.

Kuwait reached a scorching temperature of 53.2 degrees Celsius (127.7 degrees Fahrenheit), making it among the hottest places on earth.

The extremes of climate change present existential perils all over the world. But the record heat waves that roast Kuwait each season have grown so severe that people increasingly find it unbearable.

By the end of the century, scientists say being outside in Kuwait City could be life-threatening – not only to birds. A recent study also linked 67% of heat-related deaths in the capital to climate change.