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Miami Herald
09-07-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
Man-made climate change made European heat wave much more deadly
July 9 (UPI) -- Heat-related deaths in Europe's latest heat wave that ended last week were three times higher than they would have been without the warming of the planet caused by man-made climate change, British scientists said Wednesday. Climate-warming caused by burning fossil fuels, including oil, gas and coal, made the heatwave much hotter, boosting heat deaths from about 800 to an estimated 2,300 across 12 European cities, according to a new research study published by Imperial College London's Grantham Institute. "Rapid analysis" of the period June 23 through July 2 using existing peer-reviewed methods found climate change nearly tripled the number of heat-related deaths, with fossil fuel burning driving additional temperature rise of up to 4 degrees Celsius. During 10 days of heat peaking on July 1, Milan saw the most excess deaths due to climate change at 317, followed by Barcelona with 286, Paris, 235, London, 171, and Rome, 164. Sassari on the island of Sardinia, had just six excess deaths due to climate change-induced heat, notwithstanding that it has a population around 1/70th the size of London. The elderly were disproportionately affected, with people older than 65 accounting for 88% of the deaths due to climate change, which the study said underscored the scale of the risk of premature death in heatwaves for people with underlying health conditions and for Europe with its aging population. However, the scientists at Imperial and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine warned that the figures meant the likely death toll far exceeded other recent weather disasters, including floods in Valencia in summer 2024 and floods in northwestern Europe in 2021. "This study demonstrates why heat waves are known as silent killers," said Malcolm Mistry, co-author of the study and an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told The Guardian. Imperial College climate scientist Ben Clarke said the dangers of heat waves were not widely recognized, as the deaths they caused did not grab the headlines like other disasters. "Heat waves don't leave a trail of destruction like wildfires or storms. Their impacts are mostly invisible but quietly devastating. A change of just 2 or 3 degrees Celsius can mean the difference between life and death for thousands of people." Imperial College climate specialist Garyfallos Konstantinoudis said the actual number of climate change heat-related deaths for all of Europe may well be in the tens of thousands as the study was only a snapshot, not the full picture. The study warns that heat waves would continue to get hotter and predicts the number of people dying would continue to rise unless the world stops burning fossil fuels and achieves net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Separate data from the Spanish government pinpointed at least 450 extreme heat-related deaths between June 21 and July 2, up more than 70% from 2022, when 40 degrees Celsius plus temperatures killed record numbers of people. The European Union's Climate Change Service said the global temperature in June was the highest ever recorded. It said an "exceptional" marine heatwave in the western Mediterranean pushed the daily sea surface temperature to a record 27 degrees Celsius. Heat-related deaths are forecast to be 10 times higher when global temperature rises hits 1.5 degrees Celsius and 30 times higher at 3 degrees Celsius, the European Environment Agency warned last month. Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
UPI
09-07-2025
- Health
- UPI
Man-made climate change made European heat wave much more deadly
Man-made warming of the Earth saw the number of heat-related deaths in Europe's latest heat wave in late June and early July jump three-fold to at least 2,300, a new study out Wednesday shows. File photo by Vincent Jannink/EPA-EFE July 9 (UPI) -- Heat-related deaths in Europe's latest heat wave that ended last week were three times higher than they would have been without the warming of the planet caused by man-made climate change, British scientists said Wednesday. Climate-warming caused by burning fossil fuels, including oil, gas and coal, made the heatwave much hotter, boosting heat deaths from about 800 to an estimated 2,300 across 12 European cities, according to a new research study published by Imperial College London's Grantham Institute. "Rapid analysis" of the period June 23 through July 2 using existing peer-reviewed methods found climate change nearly tripled the number of heat-related deaths, with fossil fuel burning driving additional temperature rise of up to 4 degrees Celsius. During 10 days of heat peaking on July 1, Milan saw the most excess deaths due to climate change at 317, followed by Barcelona with 286, Paris, 235, London, 171, and Rome, 164. Sassari on the island of Sardinia, had just six excess deaths due to climate change-induced heat, notwithstanding that it has a population around 1/70th the size of London. The elderly were disproportionately affected, with people older than 65 accounting for 88% of the deaths due to climate change, which the study said underscored the scale of the risk of premature death in heatwaves for people with underlying health conditions and for Europe with its aging population. However, the scientists at Imperial and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine warned that the figures meant the likely death toll far exceeded other recent weather disasters, including floods in Valencia in summer 2024 and floods in northwestern Europe in 2021. "This study demonstrates why heat waves are known as silent killers," said Malcolm Mistry, co-author of the study and an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told The Guardian. Imperial College climate scientist Ben Clarke said the dangers of heat waves were not widely recognized, as the deaths they caused did not grab the headlines like other disasters. "Heat waves don't leave a trail of destruction like wildfires or storms. Their impacts are mostly invisible but quietly devastating. A change of just 2 or 3 degrees Celsius can mean the difference between life and death for thousands of people." Imperial College climate specialist Garyfallos Konstantinoudis said the actual number of climate change heat-related deaths for all of Europe may well be in the tens of thousands as the study was only a snapshot, not the full picture. The study warns that heat waves would continue to get hotter and predicts the number of people dying would continue to rise unless the world stops burning fossil fuels and achieves net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Separate data from the Spanish government pinpointed at least 450 extreme heat-related deaths between June 21 and July 2, up more than 70% from 2022, when 40 degrees Celsius plus temperatures killed record numbers of people. The European Union's Climate Change Service said the global temperature in June was the highest ever recorded. It said an "exceptional" marine heatwave in the western Mediterranean pushed the daily sea surface temperature to a record 27 degrees Celsius. Heat-related deaths are forecast to be 10 times higher when global temperature rises hits 1.5 degrees Celsius and 30 times higher at 3 degrees Celsius, the European Environment Agency warned last month.
The Guardian
09-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Climate breakdown tripled death toll in Europe's June heatwave, study finds
Planet-heating pollution tripled the death toll from the 'quietly devastating' heatwave that seared Europe at the end of June, early analysis covering a dozen cities has found, as experts warned of a worsening health crisis that is being overlooked. Scientists estimate that high heat killed 2,300 people across 12 major cities as temperatures soared across Europe between 23 June and 2 July. They attributed 1,500 of the deaths to climate breakdown, which has heated the planet and made the worst extremes even hotter. Milan was the hardest-hit city in absolute terms, with 317 out of 499 heat deaths attributed to climate breakdown, followed by Paris and Barcelona. London had 273 heat deaths, 171 of which the researchers attributed to human influence on the climate. 'This study demonstrates why heatwaves are known as silent killers,' said Malcolm Mistry, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and co-author of the study. 'While a handful of deaths have been reported in Spain, France and Italy, thousands more people are expected to have died as a result of the blistering temperatures.' The rapid analysis from the World Weather Attribution group, which used established methods but has not yet been submitted for peer review, blames climate breakdown for two-thirds of the deaths. Older people had the highest mortality, the study found, with 88% of the climate-driven deaths in people over the age of 65. The researchers said extreme heat was an 'underappreciated' threat as most victims died out of public view in homes and hospitals, and with little media coverage. 'Heatwaves don't leave a trail of destruction like wildfires or storms,' said Ben Clarke, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and co-author of the study. 'Their impacts are mostly invisible but quietly devastating. A change of just 2 or 3C can mean the difference between life and death for thousands of people.' The scientists used epidemiological models to estimate heat-related mortality in cities such as Paris, London, Madrid and Rome over a 10-day-period, and compared the death toll with that of a hypothetical world in which humans had not heated the planet by burning fossil fuels or destroying nature. They cautioned that the relationships between temperature and death they used in their models were derived from local mortality data up to 2019, and so may not fully capture how people in each city have adapted to hotter weather over time. They found climate breakdown pushed temperatures in some cities up to 4C higher, resulting in 1,500 extra deaths. The death toll was greater than that of other recent weather disasters that were made worse by fossil fuel pollution, such as the floods that killed 224 people in Spain in 2024 and the floods that killed 243 people across north-west Europe in 2021. Previous studies have estimated that about 44,000 people die from heat in Europe each year, averaged over the past few decades. The scientists suggested the vast death toll of 2,300 people from a single heatwave in just 12 cities could make this summer particularly dangerous. The EU's Earth observation service, Copernicus, said last month was the third hottest June on record globally and that an 'exceptional' marine heatwave developed in the western Mediterranean. The average daily sea surface temperature was the highest ever recorded for the region in June at 27C. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Copernicus also found a large increase in dangerous 'tropical nights', where night-time temperatures do not drop below 20C and people struggle to rest. Parts of Spain had as many as 24 tropical nights last month, 18 more than the average for June. Samantha Burgess, a deputy director of the Copernicus climate change service, said the record temperatures in the Mediterranean made the heat stress that large parts of Europe experienced 'much more intense'. She said: 'In a warming world, heatwaves are likely to become more frequent, more intense and impact more people across Europe.' Analysis by Mercator Ocean, a nonprofit research organisation that runs Copernicus's marine service, found nearly two-thirds of the Mediterranean was hit by marine heatwaves that were classed as strong or worse, the greatest extent ever recorded. The high temperatures are known to disturb fish and kill some of the plants they feed on. Mass-mortality events have repeatedly struck the Mediterranean in recent years as marine heatwaves have grown hotter. Karina Von Schuckmann, a scientist at Mercator Ocean, said: 'One particular aspect that is quite concerning … is this repeat emergence of heat stress. If you repeat the heat stress over time, the vulnerability of these specific ecosystems increases.'
The Guardian
09-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Climate breakdown tripled death toll in Europe's June heatwave, study finds
Planet-heating pollution tripled the death toll from the 'quietly devastating' heatwave that seared Europe at the end of June, early analysis covering a dozen cities has found, as experts warned of a worsening health crisis that is being overlooked. Scientists estimate that high heat killed 2,300 people across 12 major cities as temperatures soared across Europe between 23 June and 2 July. They attributed 1,500 of the deaths to climate breakdown, which has heated the planet and made the worst extremes even hotter. Milan was the hardest-hit city in absolute terms, with 317 out of 499 heat deaths attributed to climate breakdown, followed by Paris and Barcelona. London had 273 heat deaths, 171 of which the researchers attributed to human influence on the climate. 'This study demonstrates why heatwaves are known as silent killers,' said Malcolm Mistry, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and co-author of the study. 'While a handful of deaths have been reported in Spain, France and Italy, thousands more people are expected to have died as a result of the blistering temperatures.' The rapid analysis from the World Weather Attribution group, which used established methods but has not yet been submitted for peer review, blames climate breakdown for two-thirds of the deaths. Older people had the highest mortality, the study found, with 88% of the climate-driven deaths in people over the age of 65. The researchers said extreme heat was an 'underappreciated' threat as most victims died out of public view in homes and hospitals, and with little media coverage. 'Heatwaves don't leave a trail of destruction like wildfires or storms,' said Ben Clarke, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and co-author of the study. 'Their impacts are mostly invisible but quietly devastating. A change of just 2 or 3C can mean the difference between life and death for thousands of people.' The scientists used epidemiological models to estimate heat-related mortality in cities such as Paris, London, Madrid and Rome over a 10-day-period, and compared the death toll with that of a hypothetical world in which humans had not heated the planet by burning fossil fuels or destroying nature. They cautioned that the relationships between temperature and death they used in their models were derived from local mortality data up to 2019, and so may not fully capture how people in each city have adapted to hotter weather over time. They found climate breakdown pushed temperatures in some cities up to 4C higher, resulting in 1,500 extra deaths. The death toll was greater than that of other recent weather disasters that were made worse by fossil fuel pollution, such as the floods that killed 224 people in Spain in 2024 and the floods that killed 243 people across north-west Europe in 2021. Previous studies have estimated that about 44,000 people die from heat in Europe each year, averaged over the past few decades. The scientists suggested the vast death toll of 2,300 people from a single heatwave in just 12 cities could make this summer particularly dangerous. The EU's Earth observation service, Copernicus, said last month was the third hottest June on record globally and that an 'exceptional' marine heatwave developed in the western Mediterranean. The average daily sea surface temperature was the highest ever recorded for the region in June at 27C. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Copernicus also found a large increase in dangerous 'tropical nights', where night-time temperatures do not drop below 20C and people struggle to rest. Parts of Spain had as many as 24 tropical nights last month, 18 more than the average for June. Samantha Burgess, a deputy director of the Copernicus climate change service, said the record temperatures in the Mediterranean made the heat stress that large parts of Europe experienced 'much more intense'. She said: 'In a warming world, heatwaves are likely to become more frequent, more intense and impact more people across Europe.' Analysis by Mercator Ocean, a nonprofit research organisation that runs Copernicus's marine service, found nearly two-thirds of the Mediterranean was hit by marine heatwaves that were classed as strong or worse, the greatest extent ever recorded. The high temperatures are known to disturb fish and kill some of the plants they feed on. Mass-mortality events have repeatedly struck the Mediterranean in recent years as marine heatwaves have grown hotter. Karina Von Schuckmann, a scientist at Mercator Ocean, said: 'One particular aspect that is quite concerning … is this repeat emergence of heat stress. If you repeat the heat stress over time, the vulnerability of these specific ecosystems increases.'
The Independent
24-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
BBC newsreader changes ‘pregnant people' to ‘women' on live broadcast
A BBC News presenter has gone viral after replacing the term 'pregnant people' to 'women' while reading the autocue during a live broadcast. Martine Croxall was reporting on research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine that warned of nearly 600 expected heat-related deaths on Saturday (21 June). Reading from the autocue, the presenter said: 'Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, said the aged, pregnant people - women - and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions." Ms Croxall address the broadcast on X on Sunday and said: "A huge thank you to everyone who has chosen to follow me today for whatever reason. It's been quite a ride.'
