Hot Weather is Killing More than Half a Million People a Year
Authors of a new Lancet report warn that parts of the world could become unlivable, as climate change drives a surge in heat deaths.
Scientists fear parts of the world are nearing so-called physiological tipping points, when it’s so hot and humid that people can no longer survive.
Photographer: Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu/Getty ImagesSoaring temperatures are killing nearly 550,000 people around the world each year, part of a heat death toll that’s climbed more than 20% on a population-adjusted basis since the 1990s, according to the latest edition of the Lancet’s annual report on climate and health.
“That’s approximately one heat-related death every minute throughout the year,” says Ollie Jay, a heat and health expert at the University of Sydney and a co-author of the new report. “So this is a really startling number.”