Lancet Study Says Heat-Related Deaths Among Elderly Have Gone Up By 68%

The Lancet report said that changing climate is exacerbating the risk of infectious disease outbreaks and threatening global food security.

A new study in the Lancet reports that during 2021 and 2022, extreme weather events wreaked havoc on every continent, already grappling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It added that floods in Australia, Brazil, China, Western Europe, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa and South Sudan killed thousands.

It displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and caused billions of dollars in economic losses. The Lancet study said that globally heat-related deaths of people over 65 years old increased by about 68 percent between 2000 and 2004 and 2017-21.

At 1.1°C of heating,

Climate change is increasingly undermining every pillar of good health and compounding the health impacts of the current COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts. The study said that the health damage caused by excessive exposure to heat is on the rise, which affects mental health and undermines the ability to work and exercise.

With temperatures rising rapidly, older adults and children under one year of age experienced 3.7 billion days of heatwaves in 2021 compared to annually in 1986-2005.

Speaking about this year's heat wave in South Asia, The Lancet said in the study that between March and April,

India and Pakistan experienced a heat wave 30 times more likely due to climate change.

“Climate change exacerbates the risks of infectious disease outbreaks and threatens global food security, as heatwave days were associated with 98 million more people in 2020 than the number of food insecure people compared to 1981-2010,

study said.

She said the global area of ​​land affected by severe drought has increased by about a third in the past 50 years, putting hundreds of millions of people at risk of water insecurity.

“Climate change is already having a negative impact on food security, with worrying implications for malnutrition and undernourishment,

said Elizabeth Robinson, director of the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics and major contributor to Countdown.

He said the climate and health emergencies were the result of a "profound failure" by governments to recognize the urgent need to act towards a carbon-neutral world.

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