CelloMom On Cars
Okay so this piece contains a map of fatalities from: drought, wildfire, storm, landslide and flood.
What happened to "heat"?
Last year #heatwaves killed nearly 62,000 in #Europe.
Erasing heat deaths in #Africa is - shall we be charitable - irresponsible at best.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-africas-extreme-weather-have-killed-at-least-15000-people-in-2023/
CelloMom On Cars
This experiment was really necessary, and its results do not bode well for older people on a heating planet. If you compare the two graphs you can see why it is that especially older people die in a #heatwave.
Do read the whole article, a great in-plain-English explanation of the science of human heat resilience.
CelloMom On Cars
Can chief heat officers protect US cities from #ExtremeHeat?
"It’s a searing irony: America’s #ChiefHeatOfficers, and the other types of officers who also work on heat issues, hold the key to protecting communities from rising temperatures, but there is absolutely no guarantee that mayors, governors, and lawmakers will listen. And, in most cases, their funding depends on the political priorities of the party in power."
https://grist.org/extreme-heat/chief-heat-officers-protect-us-cities-extreme-heat/
CelloMom On Cars
In El Paso, a Migrant Death Crisis Emerges amid Extreme Heat
"As an emergency physician, I see the cost of climate change and border militarization first-hand—ice-filled body bags and all."
CelloMom On Cars
When heat turns deadly
"A world-first study challenges our understanding of how humans cope with #ExtremeHeat."
The #WetBulb temperature of 35C serves as an indication of when heat turns deadly for humans, but it doesn't work as well at very high temperatures.
CelloMom On Cars
"The study covered seven #heatwaves over the last 11 years. They lasted 7 to 14 days and affected 1.5 million to 34.2 million people.
The events resulted in 460 official deaths — though the figure could be as high as almost 4,000 — as well as 5,000 hospitalizations, 10,600 emergency room visits, 138,000 outpatient visits, and 344 adverse birth outcomes. They cost the state $7.7 billion in lost wages, manufacturing and agricultural productivity, power outages, and more."
https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/california-heat-waves-impact-health-insurance/
CelloMom On Cars
Climate change is increasing dangerous nighttime temperatures across the globe
"Due to human-caused climate change, 2.4 billion people experienced an average of at least 2 additional weeks per year where nighttime temperatures exceeded 25°C.
These temperatures prevent the body from recovering from daytime heat, increase the risk of illness and mortality, and disrupt sleep."
https://www.climatecentral.org/report/dangerous-nighttime-temperatures-2024
CelloMom On Cars
If you don't count it, you can't work to prevent it. But #HeatDeaths are notoriously hard to count.
"#Heat is not commonly mentioned on #DeathCertificates because heat *alone* is rarely the main thing that kills people.
[In Maricopa County] they coined the term "environmental heat exposure" to encapsulate heat related factors that contributed to someone's death without necessarily being the primary driver."
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/30/nx-s1-4854224/death-heat-arizona-climate-change-medical-examiner
CelloMom On Cars
This is a fascinating account of the need to look beyond the boxes that you can check on a death certificate.
For instance, an unhoused person found dead with drugs in their blood didn't necessarily die of a drug overdose. Some drugs inhibit sweating, some make you more active, others make you feel the heat less so you don't take precautions.
Going to the scene of death with a thermometer needs to become a routine thing - but is not.
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/30/nx-s1-4854224/death-heat-arizona-climate-change-medical-examiner
CelloMom On Cars
"Officially this year, there have been 63 #HeatDeaths in Thailand, at least 143 in India, at least 172 in Mexico, and more than 1,300 in a single week during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. But unofficially, these numbers are a fraction of heat’s true toll. They are often the most obvious cases and are much less likely to account for fatalities in which temperatures played an indirect role."
CelloMom On Cars
"Many vulnerable people in South Asia are already struggling to protect themselves from unbearably high temperatures – which are set to worsen
The humid tropics are all careening towards the 35°C threshold. The city of Jacobabad [#Pakistan] has already breached 35°C #WetBulb temperatures many times. More areas of the country are likely to be exposed to such life-threatening conditions more often due to #ClimateChange. "
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2024/05/30/developing-countries-need-support-adapting-to-deadly-heat/
#HeatDeaths
CelloMom On Cars
"The death certificates of more than 2,300 people who died in the United States last summer mention the effects of excessive heat, the highest number in 45 years of records. With May already breaking heat records, 2024 could be even deadlier."
But
"According to an "excess death" study by Texas A&M’s Dessler and his colleague Jangho Lee, about 11,000 heat deaths likely occurred in 2023 in the U.S."
https://apnews.com/article/record-heat-deadly-climate-change-humidity-south-11de21a526e1cbe7e306c47c2f12438d
#ExtremeHeat #HeatDeaths
CelloMom On Cars
"Older adults are one of the populations that we classically see as being more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, specifically to effects of #ExtremeHeat.”
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/environment/2024/06/07/heat-waves-elderly/
CelloMom On Cars
"More than 150,000 people per year are estimated to have died from heatwaves around the globe and the new study reveals regional disparities in #heatwave deaths."
https://scitechdaily.com/heatwaves-responsible-for-150000-deaths-annually/
CelloMom On Cars
These global maps of heat deaths, heat death ratio, and heat death rates brings home how many of the deaths due to #ExtremeHeat go unreported in English-language media.
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004364
CelloMom On Cars
"Regardless of where or when a #heatwave strikes, one pattern has been a constant: Older adults are the most likely to die from #ExtremeHeat, and the crisis is worsening.
We study #ClimateChange and population #aging. Our research documents two global trends that together portend a dire future."
CelloMom On Cars
"Global #HeatDeaths are projected to increase by 370% if action is not taken to limit the effects of #GlobalWarming, according to a study published Tuesday in The Lancet, a medical journal.
It found that human-caused #ClimateChange is making health-threatening temperatures more frequent, especially in the #US."
CelloMom On Cars
"The eighth annual Lancet Countdown, an international analysis that tracks nearly 50 different health-focused issues affected by climate change, calls for an immediate wind-down of #FossilFuel use.
The #LancetCountdown details staggering economic costs that stem from #ClimateChange.
Solutions to climate change can improve global health."
E.g. quitting the burning of fossil fuels reduces deadly #AirPollution.
CelloMom On Cars
"The dangers of #ExtremeHeat have become a matter of grave concern in #Europe since devastating heat waves in 2003 killed more than 71,000 people. Another heat wave that hit Moscow and western #Russia in the summer of 2010 led to more than 55,000 #HeatDeaths."
https://www.courthousenews.com/heat-related-death-toll-in-2022-europe-revised-to-more-than-70000/
CelloMom On Cars
The method to count #HeatDeaths needs to be improved everywhere.
"Currently, about the only consistency in counting #HeatDeaths in the U.S. is that officials and climate specialists acknowledge fatalities are grossly undercounted."
#ExtremeHeat
https://apnews.com/article/counting-extreme-heat-deaths-7125ad9a5289625bd9ca312945996399
CelloMom On Cars
"The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program has given Arizona $91 per person since 2001, an E&E News analysis shows. No state has received less money.
Vermont, the best-funded state, has received $921 per resident."
"The program favors states with the highest heating costs by allocating funds based largely on how often and how far temperatures drop below 65 F."
Time to add aid that kicks in at high temperatures.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/15/extreme-heat-deaths-government-agencies-00176697
CelloMom On Cars
‘#EnergyPoverty’ hits US residents more in the South and Southwest, study finds
"Federal financial assistance is allocated based on rules written in the 1980s and disproportionately provides aid to Northern states, which historically have had high heating bills.
In the decades since, populations have shifted, temperatures have risen, and energy needs have evolved. Researchers propose a solution that recognizes the cost of #AirConditioning in a warming South."
CelloMom On Cars
"We compared projected heat mortality with COVID-19 deaths in 38 cities worldwide and found that in half of these cities, heat-related deaths could exceed annual COVID-19 deaths in less than ten years (at + 3.0 °C increase in global warming relative to preindustrial). In seven of these cities, heat mortality could exceed COVID-19 deaths in less than five years."
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-82788-8
#HeatDeaths
CelloMom On Cars
"#ClimateChange is now having such a profound impact on our health, medical programs are changing the way they teach about it.
Lemery said #MedicalProfessionals need to understand what's happening to the environment and how that might be affecting their patients."
CelloMom On Cars
They died with the AC off: Why the government pays for heating but not cooling
Most people die of heat-related causes inside their home [62%]. Only 29 percent occurred outdoors. Nine percent were in automobiles.
People who die from heat-related causes at home fall into two categories — those who weren’t using their air conditioner and those who didn’t have one."
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/15/extreme-heat-deaths-government-agencies-00176697
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