Posted on 07/25/2025 4:41:34 AM PDT by MtnClimber
During the first half of 2025, a new record was set for the number of deaths caused by climate and weather disasters. Can you guess what that record was?
If you read left-wing media sources, and believe anything they say, you might think that the recent record has something to do with a large and growing number of deaths. Recent articles in sources like CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and CBS News all explicitly claim that climate change is making weather events “deadlier,” or leading to increasing numbers of deaths, or some variation of that same message. I’m sure if you checked thirty such “mainstream” news sources over the past year, all thirty of them would have pieces parroting that same narrative.
Therefore you might be surprised by the actual record that has been set: The first half of 2025 (January to June) has seen the fewest number of deaths from climate and weather disasters of any first half year this century.
Just curious if you’ve seen that information reported in any source other than here? (I came across the information at Roger Pielke, Jr.’s Honest Broker Substack. He in turn cites the Global Catastrophe Recap for the first half of 2025 issued by insurance broker Aon and the EM-DAT data base of catastrophe losses.)
But before getting to the details, let’s consider what you might believe if all you read or see is the usual “mainstream” sources:
- From MSNBC, July 9, “How climate change is making natural disasters deadlier”: “At least 119 are dead and over 170 people are still missing after the catastrophic flooding in Texas. NBC News’ Jay Gray and The Kerry County Lead Editor and Publisher Louis Amestoy share the latest updates from Kerrville, Texas, and University of Pennsylvania Presidential Distinguished Professor Michael Mann joins Chris Jansing to discuss the impact of climate change on natural disasters.”
- From CNN, July 9, “Extreme heat is a killer. A recent heat wave shows how much more deadly it’s becoming”: “Extreme heat is a killer and its impact is becoming far, far deadlier as the human-caused climate crisis supercharges temperatures. . . .”
- From CBS News, March 18, “World climate report warns of growing risks to lives, economy and planet”: “A new report from the World Meteorological Organization delivers a stark warning: climate change is accelerating, with some impacts now irreversible for centuries. The State of the Global Climate reportconfirms global temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions and sea levels all reached record highs in 2024.”
- From the New York Times, October 31, 2024, “Climate Change Is Making Disasters Deadlier. Here’s How Much.” “Two weeks before world leaders meet to debate the climate crisis, a report released on Thursday shows the 10 deadliest extreme weather events in the past two decades were made worse by burning fossil fuels.”
So let’s now look at the actual data on deaths from climate and weather disasters during the 25 years since 2000, and specifically focusing on the first half of each year. The following statement (quoted by Pielke) appears in the Executive Summary of the Aon report:
At least 7,700 people were killed due to natural disasters during the first half of 2025, which is well below the 21st-century average of 37,250. Majority of the deaths (5,456) occurred as a result of the earthquake in Myanmar.
An earthquake is not a climate or weather disaster. Take out those 5,456 deaths from the Myanmar earthquake, and you have only 2,244 deaths left that could possibly fall in the climate or weather category.
How does that compare to other recent years? Pielke goes over to the EM-DAT data base, where he finds data for deaths from weather and climate-related disasters for each of the years from 2000 to 2024. Here is the chart he compiles for January to June of each year:
The tiny red bar at the right represents the ~2,200 climate/weather related deaths through June 30, 2025. Those ~2,200 deaths from climate and weather-related disasters this year is clearly the lowest in the comparable period of the 26 years in question. The second-lowest is 2009 at about 2,600. Also obvious is that the numbers of deaths are hugely dominated by major disasters that have occurred in a few years, particularly 2008, 2010 and 2022. But with or without those outlying years, there is no obvious trend up or down in the annual number of deaths from these causes.
So 2025 is clearly the record holder for fewest first-half-of-year climate/weather disaster deaths in the 21st century. But how about before that? Pielke does not have comparable data for the comparison. However, before modern weather reporting and disaster warnings, deaths from climate and weather disasters were generally hugely greater than they are today. Drawing on other sources, he finds fairly rough estimates of around 50,000,000 deaths from climate and weather disasters in the decade of the 1870s (that would be 5,000,000 per year), 5,000,000 in the 1920s (500,000 per year) and 500,000 as recently as the 1970s (50,000 per year). The generally much greater levels of deaths in prior decades leads Pielke to the following assertion:
I’d go so far as to suggest that it is likely that the first half of 2025 has seen the fewest deaths related to extreme weather of any half year in recorded human history.
It’s not possible to prove that assertion definitively, but it is very likely correct.
The constant efforts of the media to scare people out of their wits on this subject are, frankly, despicable.
Manhattan Contrarian ping
They barely can predict this afternoons weather. Pay to play scientists.
“New Record Set For Deaths From Climate And Weather Disasters”
But were they vaxxed......THAT’S the most important question.
If they weren’t Vaxxed it would have been much worse.
NO KIDDING. A few Sunday mornings ago, our weather app said there was a 20% chance of rain at 10 PM that night. By 11 AM that morning we were under a flood warning. Over the next 2 1/2 hours we had three separate absolute deluge storms. 🙄. Yeah, tell me what happened a thousand years ago and what’s going to happen in another decade, weather-wise. Suuuuuure.
I have a buddy who died last Friday from a heat attack... But it was kind of warm out that day... It must have been climate change that killed him. I guess they’ll need to revise that death certificate.
Great analysis, showing the deception of the old, dominant media.
How about the record set by the return of disease’s from illegal invaders like smallpox, poliomyelitis, measles, rubella, congenital rubella syndrome, and tetanus and lepersy?
NOT FAIR! You are using actual facts and data. Facts and data are RACIST, SEXIST, and many other ISTs. /need I?
Yup. "Scientists." /barf (not at you, at them)
Does it include earthquakes and volcanic eruptions? Yeah, I didn’t read it because..................
covid vaxxine deaths will be attributed to climate change... because they can
The envirowackos have gone full wacko. Everyone knows that it was Trump and Musk who killed all these extra people.
Sarc/
Beg to differ but anything the left wants to claim as “man made globull catastrophe “ it is, so if they want an earthquake to be caused by climate change IT IS 😎🤔🤡
Just as too hot, too cold, too much snow, too little snow, too many hurricanes, too few hurricanes…. Earthquakes, no earthquakes
I'll add my own two cents. If the number of climate deaths are pretty stable, while the overall population has risen to 8 billion, then the climate deaths per capita is falling.
Manmade Weather Change is a fraud.
Most number of fake climate change articles written by the corrupt media in one year.
A few years ago someone posted on my local Facebook page about someone who died in a shark attack.
I replied with “another Covid-19 related death”.
I got several LOLs, I also got several Angry face replies.
The fact is that there are a lot of stupid people that have bought into this Global Warming/Climate Change mantra. They all say the same thing about it being settled by “science”.
not knowing that the scientists that agree do it to keep the funding going.
Yes, the Earth has been warming for about the last 12,000 years. However, they refuse to believe the fact that the average temperature was higher during the Roman Period two thousand years ago.
They fail to understand that one volcano puts out more CO2 than all the automobiles in the US combined. That there are 50+ active volcanoes in the world spewing out materials all over the world.
They also fail to acknowledge that in the last 2000 years there are periods where the average temperature of the Earth cooled for over 100 years.
The real climate scientists believe this warming and cooling is directly affected by the amount of sun spots on the Fusion reactor in the center of our solar system. That the star we call the sun varies in the energy output. Therefore, the increase or decrease in that energy not only effects temperatures here on Earth, but other planets in our solar system. Like the ones closest to our orbit: Venus and Mars.
This would all make to much logical sense. Therefore, it is much easier to believe if we cover the planet with solar panels, wind mills and electric cars we will all being living in Vahalla.
That's correct, no matter how hard we may try, you can't fool (change) Mother Nature.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.