In a warning about the impact of climate change, WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that 15,000 people will die from extreme heat in 2022. The year was the warmest in the continent’s history since recorded. The extraordinarily high temperatures even led to the worst drought the continent has seen since the Middle Ages.
The data is released at a pivotal moment for climate negotiations. In Egypt, the UN Summit kicked off this weekend and the aim is to reach an agreement so governments can start implementing concrete measures to tackle climate change.
But for WHO, the problems are not just for the future or for poor countries. “Heat stress is the leading cause of climate-related deaths in the European region when the body is unable to cool itself,” said Hans Kluge, WHO Director for Europe. “Extremes in temperature can also worsen chronic conditions, including cardiovascular, respiratory and cerebrovascular diseases, and diabetes-related diseases,” he said.
According to him, based on data from the countries presented so far, it is estimated that at least 15,000 people died in 2022, mainly due to heat. Among them, close to 4000 deaths in Spain, more than 1000 in Portugal, 3200 in England and around 4500 in Germany were reported by health authorities in 3 months of summer.
“This estimate is expected to increase as more countries report extreme heat-related deaths,” he admitted.
France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Research (INSEE) reported that more than 11,000 people died between June 1 and August 22, 2022, compared to the same period in 2019, last year when the coronavirus pandemic hit. . INSEE suggested these figures were “probably explained by the heatwave that occurred in mid-July after the first heatwave event in mid-June.”
Temperatures in Europe warmed significantly during the 1961-2021 period, averaging 0.5°C per decade. According to a report released this week by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), this is the region that has warmed the most.
Extreme temperatures were responsible for more than 148,000 deaths in the European Region over the past 50 years. “We’ve lost at least 15,000 more lives in just 1 year since then,” he warned.
Overall, WHO estimates that in 2021, high-impact weather and weather events caused hundreds of deaths and directly affected more than half a million people. “About 84 percent of these incidents were floods or storms,” he said.
source: Noticias
