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Human-caused climate change led to people worldwide experiencing an average of 41 additional days of dangerous heat in 2023, according to a new analysis conducted jointly by World Weather Attribution and Climate Central. The organizations also indicated that 2024 will likely be recorded as the warmest year in history.
The leader of World Weather Attribution, Friederike Otto, stated: “The finding is devastating but utterly unsurprising. Climate change did play a role, and often a major role in most of the events we studied, making heat, droughts, tropical cyclones and heavy rainfall more likely and more intense across the world, destroying lives and livelihoods of millions and often uncounted numbers of people.”
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Otto further cautioned: “As long as the world keeps burning fossil fuels, this will only get worse.”
However, the analysis overlooks a crucial aspect of temperature-related impacts on human health – the reduction in extremely cold days, which pose a greater threat to human life than extreme heat. A moderately warming climate could potentially decrease the occurrence of dangerously cold temperatures.
Weather-related mortality statistics demonstrate that cold weather claims significantly more lives than heat, with winter months proving deadlier than summer months. Recent global temperature increases have actually corresponded with a decrease in weather-related fatalities, primarily because the reduction in cold-weather deaths outweighs the increase in heat-related casualties.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) statistics reveal that in the United States over the last two decades, heat-related deaths have fluctuated between 0.9 and 3.6 per million individuals, while cold-related fatalities have ranged from 3.6 to 5.9 per million.
The disparity becomes even more pronounced on a global scale, where cold-related deaths are nearly ten times higher than heat-related fatalities.
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A 2021 study published in The Lancet revealed that annually, 5,083,173 deaths worldwide were linked to “non-optimal temperatures,” with cold temperatures being responsible for the vast majority. The research indicated that individuals globally are 9.4 times more likely to perish from cold than heat, with yearly deaths totaling 4.5 million from cold compared to 155,000 from heat.
The study also noted that while heat-related mortality has increased slightly (+0.21 percent) due to global warming over the past two decades, cold-related deaths have decreased by more than double that rate (-0.51 percent) during the same timeframe.
The selective focus on warming temperatures while disregarding cold weather effects suggests potential bias in climate change discourse. A comprehensive analysis would consider both the negative impacts and possible benefits of global warming.
