Study blames climate change for 37 percent of heat deaths These are deaths related to heat that actually can be prevented. It is something we directly cause
Author:
May 31, 2021
Cactus flanks the banks of the Rio Grande as boaters in the distance navigate the shallow river as it flows through Rio Rancho, New Mexico, on Monday, Aug. 31, 2020. New Mexico and other southwestern states have been dealing with dry conditions and warmer temperatures this summer. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan) These are deaths related to heat that actually can be prevented. It is something we directly cause
Seth Borenstein
Associated Press
More than one-third of the world’s heat deaths each year are due directly to global warming, according to the latest study to calculate the human cost of climate change.
increase font size
Study blames climate change for 37% of heat deaths
Even more people die from other extreme weather amplified by global warming, such as storms, flooding and drought.
By SETH BORENSTEINAssociated Press
Share
Mourners attend a funeral in 2015 for unclaimed people who died of extreme weather, in Karachi, Pakistan, after a devastating heat wave that killed 800.
Shakil Adil/Associated Press
More than one-third of the world’s heat deaths each year are due directly to global warming, according to the latest study to calculate the human cost of climate change.
But scientists say that’s only a sliver of climate’s overall toll – even more people die from other extreme weather amplified by global warming such as storms, flooding and drought – and the heat death numbers will grow exponentially with rising temperatures.
More than one-third of the world’s heat deaths each year are due directly to global warming, according to the latest study to calculate the human cost of climate change.
But scientists say that’s only a sliver of climate’s overall toll even more people die from other extreme weather amplified by global warming such as storms, flooding and drought and the heat death numbers will grow exponentially with rising temperatures.
Dozens of researchers who looked at heat deaths in 732 cities around the globe from 1991 to 2018 calculated that 37% were caused by higher temperatures from human-caused warming, according to a study Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.