UPDATE: A rebuttal of a major point in the Lancet&UCL “Managing the health effects of climate change” report will be published in this blog by tomorrow
I have already blogged about an article on the BMJ (2000;321:670-673) showing that across Europe, “all regions [show] more annual cold related mortality than heat related mortality“: i.e. cooling kills more than warming.
But there’s more…again from the BMJ (2002;324:89-90):
[In South East England], of 1265 annual excess winter deaths per million over the past 10 years, 2.4% were due to influenza either directly or indirectly
In other words, up to 97.6% of winter deaths could be avoided were the climate warmer. The authors go as far as to suggest that
measures to reduce cold stress offer the greatest opportunities to reduce current levels of winter mortality
Wouldn’t that be a good idea as a goal for geoengineering?
0 replies on “Cold Weather Kills More Than Flu”
[…] It may never be possible to answer that question in full and in full confidence. But there is one interesting, major detail that relates to something I just blogged about. […]