Heat killed a record 50,000 people in European cities this summer, new research suggests, with scientists blaming climate breakdown for two in every three of the deaths. Morgues and funeral homes filled with bodies from June to August as the heat added by planet-baking pollution cut short an extra 3…
Heat killed a record 50,000 people in European cities this summer, new research suggests, with scientists blaming climate breakdown for two in every three of the deaths. Morgues and funeral homes filled with bodies from June to August as the heat added by planet-baking pollution cut short an extra 32,000 lives in urban areas, the researchers found. Hot days pushed vulnerable bodies into overdrive and warm nights prevented them from recovering. The "staggering" death toll, modelled using historical relationships between heat and health in 854 cities, was the worst on record, the study found. Hot weather marked by relentless heatwaves killed nearly twice as many people as it did in each of the two next most dangerous years.
The share of deaths due to climate breakdown has risen from about 40% at the start of the century to 65% this summer, the study found. People succumbed to heat at the highest rates in Malta, Italy and Hungary, while absolute death tolls were greatest in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the UK.
In Naples, the hardest-hit city on the continent, 815 people per million died from the heat, according to the study's age-standardised estimates. Mario Guarino, an emergency doctor at Ospedale CTO in the north of the city, said he witnessed a 15% increase in emergency room visits during the hottest weeks. The "defining characteristic" of the period was the complexity of health problems exacerbated by heat, he added, with loneliness and poverty worsening the situation further.
"We took in a terminal cancer patient who lived in a hot attic simply because his family couldn't find a company to install air conditioning during the summer," said Guarino. "An elderly man with dementia was abruptly abandoned by his Ukrainian caregiver who returned home to say goodbye to her son, who had been called to war."
Heat killed 'staggering' 50,000 people in Europe's cities this summer, scientists warn
The study found people over the age of 85 made up almost half of the death toll, though younger people were not immune, with 833 people between the age of 20 and 44 also thought to have died due to the heat.
The scorching heat that persistently baked western Europe this summer was the worst on record, the EU's climate monitoring service announced this month, with more than half the continent seared by "very strong" heat stress that felt hotter than 38C.
Greenhouse gases have warmed Europe about twice as fast as the global average, exposing more people to intolerably hot summers and fewer people to dangerously cold winters.
Doctors have urged governments to burn fewer fossil fuels – the core driver of rising temperatures – while bolstering health systems, greening cities, rolling out air conditioning and encouraging people to drink water and seek shade.
"They have also stressed the benefits of people checking in on vulnerable neighbours and family members so they can get help before tragedy strikes."
