20.08.2024
European Heatwave Killed Over 47,000 People In 2023
More than 47,000 people died in Europe due to scorching temperatures in 2023. The report by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) found countries in the continent's south were hit the hardest by the deadly heat. Last year was the world's hottest on record. As climate change continues to increase temperatures, Europeans live in the world's fastest-warming continent, facing growing health risks stemming from intense heat. Heat has been dubbed by medics as a 'silent killer' due to the way it exacerbates existing health conditions, like those of the heart, meaning it kills far more people than would first appear. Adjusting the data for population, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain were the countries with the highest mortality rates related to heat. The total death toll for the year reached 47,690, with 57 per cent of the deaths occurring during two major heatwaves in mid-July and late August. The year 2023 was the hottest on record. In fact, research estimating past temperatures before the records began found that it was the hottest in the northern hemisphere over the past 2,000 years. Scientists from the European climate change agency Copernicus said the continent saw a record number of days with “extreme heat stress” when temperatures felt hotter than 45C due to humidity even if mercury was lower.
Credit: Forbes
Credit: Forbes
Poverty deprives people of adequate education, health care and of life's most basic necessities- safe living conditions (including clean air and clean drinking water) and an adequate food supply. The developed (industrialized) countries today account for roughly 20 percent of the world's population but control about 80 percent of the world's wealth.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
