Three Ideas to Beat the Heat, and the People Who Made Them Happen

An app that helps people find relief from the heat.

A tiny insurance policy that pays working women when temperatures soar.

Local laws that help outdoor workers get water and shade on sweltering days.

As dangerous heat becomes impossible to ignore, an array of practical innovations are emerging around the world to protect people most vulnerable to its hazards. What’s notable is that these efforts don’t require untested technologies. Instead, they’re based on ideas that are practical and already known to work.

They offer a window into the need to adapt to the new dangers of extreme heat that have played out vividly in recent weeks, killing still-untold numbers of religious pilgrims, tourists and election workers around the world and driving up emergency room visits for heat-related ailments in the United States.

The World Meteorological Organization has said that heat now kills more people than any other extreme-weather hazard and has called for many more “tailored climate products and services” to protect people’s health, including easy-to-use tools to find help.

Iphigenia Keramitsoglou is an atmospheric physicist who specializes in remote-sensing data. She looks at the world from very far away.