It strikes me it would help this discussion dramatically if someone mentioned that we need to not discussion the question 'how many people are killed by heat?', but rather 'how many people are killed by heat plus poverty?'
If the recorded temperature for a day is 24 degrees (Celcius), the heat in a non air-conditioned flat in the attic with windows that won't open could be much, much more. And the ambient temperature in a high-density heat island covered with asphalt roads and roofs is going to be a lot hotter than in a suburb with mature trees lining the streets.
Assuming-out the problem of wealth-stratification really makes the discussion somewhat meaningless.
Great explanation of heat-related mortality numbers. I've wondered how those numbers are derived, since there are so many variables and temperatures are often not that extreme. It's not like the opening scene in the book "Ministry for the Future".
Now perform the analysis on the number of deaths due to excess cold and we can have a balanced discussion. The Lancet, for example, places excess cold deaths at seven times the rate of deaths due to excess heat
If you’re interested in heat vs cold, I’ve previously written about this.
https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/unraveling-the-debate-does-heat-or?r=27daj&triedRedirect=true
It strikes me it would help this discussion dramatically if someone mentioned that we need to not discussion the question 'how many people are killed by heat?', but rather 'how many people are killed by heat plus poverty?'
If the recorded temperature for a day is 24 degrees (Celcius), the heat in a non air-conditioned flat in the attic with windows that won't open could be much, much more. And the ambient temperature in a high-density heat island covered with asphalt roads and roofs is going to be a lot hotter than in a suburb with mature trees lining the streets.
Assuming-out the problem of wealth-stratification really makes the discussion somewhat meaningless.
Great explanation of heat-related mortality numbers. I've wondered how those numbers are derived, since there are so many variables and temperatures are often not that extreme. It's not like the opening scene in the book "Ministry for the Future".
Thanks Andrew!
Nice work! It’s good to define terms and ferret out the real meaning of the different methods. I’ll keep this in mind as summer comes this year.
Now perform the analysis on the number of deaths due to excess cold and we can have a balanced discussion. The Lancet, for example, places excess cold deaths at seven times the rate of deaths due to excess heat
I wrote about heat vs cold previously. See the related posts at the bottom of this post.