(TheConservativeTimes.org) – The Earth’s temperature is continuing to rise, and this has resulted in many people’s lives being at stake. A new study has shown that deaths related to extreme heat could triple by the end of the century and it would hit minority communities the worst.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have looked at the relationship between the number of deaths and the average temperatures in the United States over the last decade. The study was published in Jama Network Open and it’s said that currently, there are over eight thousand temperature-related deaths in the country annually.
The study found that even just one additional day of extreme temperatures could increase these numbers dramatically.
Gaurab Basu, MD and Director of Education and Policy at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard, said, “For years, we have been chronically underestimating the number of heat-related deaths … because they are so complicated.”
To find these results, the team used established climate models to predict future deaths from heat or cold between the years 2036 and 2065. They then took this data and ran it through two different greenhouse gas scenarios.
“The lower emissions scenario represents what we think might happen to the greenhouse gas emission trajectory if currently proposed climate policies are enacted,” said Samuel Khatana, the study’s lead author.
They predicted that by 2065, the deaths from extreme temperature could reach over nineteen thousand in the lower greenhouse gas scenario and over twenty-six thousand in the higher greenhouse gas scenario.
Basu added, “It’s critical to understand that a warming planet is dangerous to all of us. But climate change and heat-related impacts on health are very disproportionate and very inequitably distributed.”
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