World
FAO and WMO: Extreme Heat Costs 500 Billion Work Hours a Year as Crop Thresholds Crack Above 30°C
A joint FAO-WMO report released on Earth Day 2026 finds that extreme heat now erases roughly half a trillion labor hours annually, threatens more than a billion livelihoods, and is pushing staple-crop yields past known temperature breakpoints in Brazil, Kyrgyzstan, and beyond.