By Lynn Singband
On July 23, 2018, the temperatures in Japan reached a high after a weeks-long heat wave that smashed previous temperature records. On that day, a customer known to Tatsuro Maesawa, a 36-year-old bike shop owner, stepped into Maesawa’s store. He moved clumsily and complained he had a headache and felt powerless. He had reduced concentration, was feeling dull and walked unusually.
Luckily, Maesawa recognized the symptoms of heatstroke, having experienced it himself a few days earlier. He gave the man some water and had him rest until his body cooled down. The man recovered though his experience is a powerful example of the life- threatening risks of climate change. Unfortunately, a 6-year-old boy was not so fortunate. He died from heat exhaustion on a school trip to a park that same week.
In July 2021 Monash University in Australia published the results of a 20-year analysis of mortality and temperature data across the world in The Lancet Planetary Health. The study evaluated deaths related to increases in hot temperatures and in cold temperatures. The results attributed 5 million extra deaths a year to abnormal hot and cold temperatures. Specifically, the study found 9.3 percent of global deaths are due to cold and hot temperatures.
There are geographic differences in how abnormally high and low temperatures impact mortality rates. Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa have the highest heat- and cold-related excess death rates. Europe suffered the highest excess death rate per 100,000 people due to heat exposure. Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest death rate per 100,000 people due to exposure to cold. More than half the deaths associated with abnormal cold and heat occurred in Asia, particularly East and South Asia.
This study included baseline data from 43 countries across five continents with different climates, socioeconomic and demographic conditions and differing levels of infrastructure and public health services.
Temperature changes in the United States were tied to more than 173,000 deaths each year.
Below there are 5,000 dots to represent the 5 million people dying each year because of abnormally hot and cold temperatures resulting from climate change.
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