Thread by @latimes

Extreme heat is one of the deadliest consequences of global warming.

But California chronically undercounts the death toll and has failed to address the growing threat of heat-related illness and death, according to a @latimes investigation.

Thread ⬇️
latimes.com/projects/calif…

Between 2010 and 2019, the hottest decade on record, California’s official data from death certificates attributed 599 deaths to heat exposure.

But a Times analysis found that the true toll is probably six times higher. latimes.com/environment/st…

California’s undercount is one of the ways it overlooks the threat posed by heat waves, even as climate change delivers them more frequently, more intensely and with deadlier consequences. latimes.com/environment/st…

Each year, extreme heat kills more Americans than any other climate-fueled hazard, including hurricanes, floods and wildfires, but it gets far less attention.

Its harms fall most heavily on the poor, the infirm, the very young and the elderly.

latimes.com/environment/st…

People die in stifling homes, apartments and trailers they can’t afford to air-condition.

They collapse while working in the sun at jobs they can’t afford to lose.

What for some is a nuisance is for others a threat to survival.
latimes.com/environment/st…

Here is how reporters @annamphillips @tonybarboza @LATvives and @seangreene89, working with health data analyst Logan Arnold, found that heat likely caused about 3,900 deaths over the previous decade — six times the state’s official tally. latimes.com/environment/ne…