Report: Climate Change Causing Rise in Heat-Related Deaths
Report: Climate Change Causing Rise in Heat-Related Deaths
The 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.
Among the impacts on humans were a 167% increased 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.
The Spin
Global warming is the foundation of every rise in climate-related 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 normalnorm for this generation, but we can still protect the future if we lower carbon emissions.
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 we need—not destroying industries or economies.
