HKFP is committed to illustrating extreme heat in an accurate and ethical way, so we are releasing dozens of free-to-use, locally shot images for individuals and non-commercial entities as part of our Wikicommons Climate Project.
Too often, news media depict unprecedented heatwaves with “fun in the sun” images of cheery beachgoers or children playing in fountains. However, the reality is more long-term, and a lot less trivial: struggling workers, sweating pedestrians, and ecological damage.
Between 2000 and 2019, around 489,000 people died every year from extreme heat around the world, according to a modelling study reported in The Lancet. Around 45 per cent of these deaths happened in Asia, the world’s most disaster-hit region from weather and climate hazards.
In Hong Kong, the poor are disproportionately affected, and the dense number of buildings only adds to the “urban heat island phenomenon,” which traps heat. The city recently recorded its hottest summer since records began in 1884, and it was subsequently pummelled by Super Typhoon Saola and record-breaking rainfall. More extreme weather is expected.
Locally, depicting extremes can be challenging, as heat itself is invisible and many suffer indoors. The Climate Visuals project agrees that “environmental imagery is often ineffective, inaccessible or absent.” Therefore, in recent years, HKFP has invested in portrayals that better communicate the effects and dangers of extreme heat.
Climate Visuals research resulted in 10 ideas for illustrating extreme heat ethically and fairly.
1. Extreme heat is not fun.
Images of people splashing in fountains, swimming at beaches and pools and eating ice cream are a long-time staple of stories about heatwaves and hot days. They are easy to shoot, particularly at short notice, and can make for bright, colourful pictures. But they are not a full or accurate reflection of the growing level of risk associated with extreme heat, now a bigger killer than floods, storms, drought and other climate-fuelled events. Portraying heat simply as fun can reduce perceptions of extreme heat risk and miss an opportunity to help people better understand a growing threat.
2. Extreme heat is more than a weather story.
Images of people splashing in fountains, swimming at beaches and pools and eating ice cream are a long-time staple of stories about heatwaves and hot days. They are easy to shoot, particularly at short notice, and can make for bright, colourful pictures. But they are not a full or accurate reflection of the growing level of risk associated with extreme heat, now a bigger killer than floods, storms, drought and other climate-fuelled events. Portraying heat simply as fun can reduce perceptions of extreme heat risk and miss an opportunity to help people better understand a growing threat.
3. Focus on the most affected.
Creating heat visuals isn’t easy. But thinking about who might be struggling most on a hot day can help. That could be outdoor labourers – construction workers, delivery people, police, ambulance crews and firefighters, traffic wardens, farmers – or those working inside without adequate cooling, including factory or warehouse workers. Also highly at risk are elderly or disabled people, very young children, pregnant women, homeless people, migrants, the poor and those affected by cultural or physical restrictions that prevent them from leaving their homes to seek cooling or removing heat-trapping clothing.
4. Accurately portray risks and impacts for average people.
That might be families seeking shade outside homes without fans or air conditioning, medical workers treating people with heatstroke or other health impacts, sweating outdoor workers trying to do their jobs without adequate protection or cooling, students taking exams in sweltering classrooms, commuters packed on sweltering trains, or delivery drivers carrying packages in the heat.
5. But also show interventions to reduce extreme heat risk.
Consider how you might combine images of heat impacts with more constructive visuals of how to reduce such threats. That could be people benefiting from the cooling impact of shade structures, parks or water-access areas in cities. It could include early warning signs with advice for residents, people accessing public cooling centres, elderly residents of care homes sitting in front of fans or air conditioning, construction workers wearing cooling vests or taking more frequent breaks, or people shifting their working hours or physical activity to avoid the worst heat. Images of climate impacts are emotionally powerful but can be overwhelming for audiences, so coupling them with visuals of concrete actions people can take to lower their risks is hugely helpful.
6. Think about your audience.
It may sound obvious, but it’s worth thinking about the extreme-heat-related problems your particular audience faces – whether long, hot commutes or work at an inadequately cooled warehouse or factory that is the major local employer – and focusing on those and any efforts to reduce them. Showing local impacts that engage with your audience’s lives and experiences, where possible, will boost engagement with your story.
7. Rethink when to shoot.
Shooting extreme heat images at the hottest parts of the day makes sense – but heat is now affecting longer periods of each day, including nights when people struggle to sleep, and problems such as deteriorating mental health or worsening domestic violence may occur. Think about how you can tell new stories that show the wide-ranging impacts of extreme heat.
8. Build sources and seek access ahead of time.
Treat extreme heat like other stories that require detailed planning and ongoing work to cover effectively. It can be very difficult to get a hospital, ambulance crew, school or care home to allow access for you to shoot on a very hot day, especially when they may be very busy. But if you approach officials and institutions ahead of heat season, explain what you’re trying to portray and build relationships with them, you may find access easier and be in a position to tell detailed visual stories when a heatwave does hit.
9. Take care of yourself.
Extreme heat can be debilitating, or even deadly, for everyone trying to do their job on a hot day, including photographers on assignment. Remember to take regular breaks, drink plenty of water, wear cool clothing, stay in the shade as much as possible and pay attention to how you’re feeling as you work.
10. Think about your equipment.
Extreme heat can make cameras, smartphones, drones and other devices overheat and stop working. Think ahead about how you might keep your equipment cool and functioning in hot situations, from taking along cool packs to having backup equipment on hand.
Although the Climate Visuals project has released hundreds of quality, ethical images, HKFP is keen to unlock locally sourced options for Hong Kong institutions, fellow news media outlets, bloggers, researchers, and anyone else who wishes to depict heat stress.
We invite everyone to download the high-resolution images from Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This means:
You are free:
- to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
- to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
- attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
Global heating: a long-term threat
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the intensity and frequency of heatwaves have continued to increase since the 1950s due to human-caused climate change. The prevalence of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide – which trap heat in the atmosphere – raises the planet’s surface temperature, with hotter, longer heatwaves putting lives at risk.
See also: How extreme heat became the deadliest silent killer among world weather disasters
Hong Kong has already warmed by 1.7 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution, research NGO Berkeley Earth says. Heat and humidity may reach lethal levels for protracted periods by the end of the century, according to a 2023 study, making it impossible to stay outdoors in some parts of the world.
