Report: Climate Change Causing Rise in Heat-Related Deaths

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Facts

  • According to the 2024 Lancet Countdown report, the average person last year experienced 50 more days of dangerously high temperatures — leading to increased rates of infectious diseases, droughts, food insecurity, and deaths.[1][2]
  • Among the impacts were a 167% increase in the mortality rate for people aged 65 and older compared to the 1990s, increased heat stress hours by 27.7%, decreased sleep hours by 6%, and deteriorated mental health.[2][3]
  • There was increased extreme rain in roughly 60% of global land area, while 48% of global land area experienced at least one month of extreme drought. While rainfall prompted flooding and disease, droughts caused an additional 151M people to face food insecurity in 2022.[2][1]
  • The report also noted economic impacts, including $227B lost due to extreme weather from 2019-2023, and 512B in labor hours ($835B in income) lost in 2023.[2]
  • While the report claimed the global temperature is on track to rise 2.7°C (4.9°F) above baseline by 2100, it also noted that fossil fuel-related pollution deaths fell by 7% to 2.1M and clean energy-produced electricity nearly doubled to 10.5% of electricity production.[1][2]
  • This comes amid the release of a separate report from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, which found that over 50% of heat-related deaths in Europe in the summer of 2022 were due to climate change. European temperatures are reportedly rising at twice the rate of the global average.[4][5]

Sources: [1]Al Jazeera, [2]The Lancet, [3]Aa, [4]UPI and [5]Sciencedaily.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Al Jazeera and Miami. Global warming is the foundation of the rise in hydrometeorological disasters, from hurricanes to tornadoes to floods. What's scariest of all is how heat in and of itself is killing more people than those other events combined, as humans simply cannot bear the rapid temperature jumps every year. Unfortunately, continual record-breaking heat waves have become the norm for this generation, but humanity can still protect the future if carbon emissions are slashed.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Youtube and Nature. While temperatures have steadily risen over the last 50 years, there's been no exponential increase in the rate of warming. Carbon emissions, too, have remained flat or declined over the last decade. The energy industry is already on a carbon-reducing path, from fracking and nuclear energy to solar panels and windmills. This, alongside disaster prevention policies like forest management and urban engineering, is what humanity needs — not destroying industries or economies.

Predictions