May and June heatwaves killed about 2,700 people in England and Wales, data suggests

The heatwave that affected England and Wales in June killed about 440 people a day during its three-day peak, scientists have estimated. Across the whole of the June heatwave, plus the one in May, about 2,700 people lost their lives prematurely.

The data starkly illustrates the danger of extreme heat, which is being supercharged by the climate crisis. More than 40% of the people affected would not have died without the 1.4C of human-caused global heating to date, according to the analysis. For comparison, about four people die each day as a result of road traffic collisions and about 35 a day because of alcohol and drug use, according to government statistics.

Extreme temperatures will worsen as continued fossil fuel burning pumps pollution into the atmosphere, making cuts in emissions and measures to protect people from global heating urgent, say experts.

“These are big numbers and we don’t want to see this many people dying,” said Dr Clair Barnes, at Imperial College London, who led the analysis. “We’ve reached the point where the heat is so extreme that we can’t help but acknowledge the impacts it has.”

The June heatwave peak resulted in an unprecedented three successive days of red warnings from the UK Health Security Agency and the Met Office, warning of danger to life for all, though the young, old and those with underlying illnesses are most at risk from high temperatures and humidity.

Maybe they were but that still doesnt make sense.

We have heat higher than that and our seasoned citizens without air conditioning dont drop in giant swaths.

One of my grandmothers lived to 98, one of my Ggrandfathers lived to 98, and another to 104. No air conditioning. Grandma worked in commercial kitchens and the men were primarily farmers.

You go in the basement with a cold drink. You fill the stock tank or a small pool and let the water just suck the heat out, the cows wont mind and sometimes its the only way because air conditioning isne effective when youre that hot. Head down to the creek. Jump in a lake. Sometimes wet towels and a fan is enough.

Are they claiming the laws of physics do not work the same in Europe? England is covered in canals and rivers and many have direct access to the ocean. France is constantly whining yet their population lives on the eastern third or western third with no one in the middle so they can jump in the ocean. Most of Europe might not have basements like ours but just about every old building has brick vaults for storage that stay cool. Some places there are hundreds of miles of tunnels left over from wars and old ossuaries. They cant run a couple of lights down there and give them some lemonade for their canasta tournament.

Its their governments trying to find a scapegoat because they know they are the ones at fault. Its not just due to air conditioners but they promised to take care of these people and stole the money their whole life but when they actually needed it they were no where around. If I stole a couple hundred, a million(?), over the length of a persons life I should have enough money to bring these people that are in a dangerous position to a care facility in a cooler place like up on a mountain. Theyre all good buddies over there now, dont the people up in Boda need more work?

Their government lied, it continues to lie, they bought the lie, now its Americas fault.

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