Thread by @BjornLomborg

It seems truth often matters little when pushing climate crisis

Claim in media around world that ‘climate crisis’ makes more heat deaths

No: for constant population, both heat and cold deaths down

Thread

edition.cnn.com/2021/08/19/hea…
thelancet.com/journals/lance…
ihmeuw.org/5d6x

We only see more cold and heat deaths if we don’t adjust for population:

because more and especially many more older people

We are badly informed when media claims that this is because of climate

edition.cnn.com/2021/08/19/hea…
thelancet.com/journals/lance…
ihmeuw.org/5d6x

In general, all age groups die less of cold
Of 95+ year olds, 1.5% die each year from cold (29% die of all causes each year)

Heat deaths up, but from very low base, of 95+ year olds, 0.06% die each year

edition.cnn.com/2021/08/19/hea…
thelancet.com/journals/lance…
ihmeuw.org/5d6x

Heat deaths very enlarged:

Most age groups die more, but youngsters (0-19) die much less, likely because more hospital birth

Because this age group is *much* larger, its reduction outweigh increase for old

edition.cnn.com/2021/08/19/hea…
thelancet.com/journals/lance…
ihmeuw.org/5d6x

With a constant population, we see 670,000 fewer die from cold, and 37,000 fewer die from heat each year

We only see increasing heat and cold deaths because of increasing and aging population

Don't blame it on climate

edition.cnn.com/2021/08/19/hea…
thelancet.com/journals/lance…