The heatwave that has gripped Europe has been caused by climate change, which has tripled the number of heat-related deaths, according to Politico.
In late June and the first week of July, Europe was gripped by a searing heatwave, leaving millions of people across the continent exposed to dangerously high temperatures. Scientists looked at data from 12 European cities and found that 11 of them would have experienced fewer heatwaves had it not been for human-caused climate change. The findings suggest that temperatures would have been two to four degrees Celsius cooler.
According to scientists, the temperature changes driven by climate change have increased the number of deaths. Of the 2,300 heat-related deaths, 1,500 were attributed to global warming. Friederike Otto, a climate researcher at Imperial College London, said climate change is a major player when it comes to extreme heat.
Among those who died from heatstroke were a construction worker in Italy and a street cleaner in Spain. However, a large proportion of deaths that could be linked to the effects of heat go unreported, especially among the elderly.
This has led to heat being called the “silent killer”, even though it is no less deadly than other natural disasters.
The heatwave on the first days of July has killed more people than the severe floods of recent years.
Another climate researcher from Imperial College London, Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, said the study was just a snapshot on the reality, with high temperatures caused by climate change killing tens of thousands of people.
Global warming caused by the use of fossil fuels is causing more intense and frequent heatwaves in Europe and around the world. An ageing population is making Europe more vulnerable to the health effects of extreme heat. The European Environment Agency has warned that heat-related deaths will increase tenfold if the planet warms by another 1.5 degrees.
The study, by Imperial College London and the London Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was published on the 9th of July. It looked at heat-related deaths between the 23rd of June and the 2nd of July in Milan (317), Barcelona (286), Paris (235), London (171), Rome (164), Madrid (108), Athens (96), Budapest (47), Zagreb (31), Frankfurt (21), Lisbon (21) and the Sardinian city of Sassari (6). Otto said that
behind those figures are real people who have lost their lives to heat
in recent days and added that two-thirds of them would still be alive if it were not for climate change.
The heatwave has also increased the risk of forest fires, with fires raging in many parts of Europe. The study does not include deaths related to fires. Two farmers in Spain died trying to escape the flames last week.
The European Union’s climate change service Copernicus reported on the 9th of July that June was the third hottest on record. Air temperatures in Europe are also being affected by an unprecedented heatwave in the Mediterranean. The sea surface temperature is the highest ever recorded.
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