The "silent killer" claimed 50.000 lives

Heat waves exacerbated by carbon dioxide pollution killed nearly 50.000 people in Europe last year, as the continent warms faster than other parts of the world, research has shown.

Fires in Greece spread to the suburbs of Athens yesterday, while France issued high temperature warnings for large parts of the country and Great Britain faced its hottest day of the year.

Doctors call heat the "silent killer" because it takes far more lives than most people realize. According to a study published in the journal Nature Medicine, mortality in 2023 would have been 80 percent higher if people had not adapted to rising temperatures in the last twenty years, "The Guardian" reported.

Elisa Galo, an environmental protection expert at ISGlobal and lead author of the study, said the results show that efforts to adapt societies to heat waves have been successful.

"However, the number of heat-related deaths remains too high," she warned. "Europe is warming faster than the global average, we cannot rely on what we have already achieved."

Heat waves have become more intense, longer and more frequent as humans have burned fossil fuels and destroyed nature, choking the atmosphere with greenhouse gases and warming the planet. Globally, 2023 was the warmest year ever, and scientists expect 2024 to soon take its place, the Guardian writes.

The researchers found that colder countries in Europe, such as Great Britain, Norway and Switzerland, will experience the greatest relative increase in the number of uncomfortably warm days. But the absolute number of deaths will still be highest in southern Europe, which is better adapted to warm weather but is more exposed to extreme temperatures.

The scientists found that heat-related deaths in 2023 were highest in Greece, with 393 deaths per million people, followed by Italy with 209 deaths and Spain with 175.

Greece's worst fire this year spread to areas around Athens yesterday, forcing authorities to evacuate several suburbs in the capital and a children's hospital. The government asked for help from other members of the European Union to fight the fire, which raged uncontrollably for the second day, fueled by strong winds.

Firefighters said the blaze, which threatens apartment blocks, schools and parks, has entered the capital the deepest it has seen in more than two decades.

Repeated heat waves dried up the surrounding forest and turned the trees into combustible material.

The 2023 heat wave killed 70.000 people across the continent and left officials scrambling to save lives by setting up early warning systems and preparing prevention plans. But almost two decades later, the death toll from record temperatures in 2022, which claimed more than 60.000 lives, raises questions about how effective those measures were.

Scientists have modeled the health effects of heat for different time periods since the beginning of the century and estimated that the number of deaths last year was 47.690. It was found that mortality would have been 80 percent higher if the temperatures in 2023 had been present in the period 2000-2004. compared to the pre-pandemic reference period 2015–2019. For people over 80, the heat would be twice as deadly.

Dominik Roje of the Climate Research Foundation, who was not involved in the study, said the results were consistent with published research. He added that there is a need for better monitoring of the effects of heat on the groups most at risk, as well as the implementation of plans to prevent deaths.

"We monitor the temperature very well, but not the impact on health in the same way," said Roje. "Social adaptation to rising temperatures has played a key role in preventing mortality in Europe, but it is still not enough."

Scientists say governments can protect people from heat waves by designing cooler cities with more parks and less concrete, setting up early warning systems to notify people of imminent danger, and strengthening health systems so doctors and nurses are not overwhelmed when temperatures rise.

However, as the Guardian reports, individual actions such as staying indoors and drinking water also have a significant impact on the number of deaths. Checking in on elderly neighbors and relatives who live alone can be life-saving.

Climate change is a health problem

Dr. Santi di Pietro, assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pavia, said his colleagues are treating more patients a day than they did in early January during the flu season.

Heat waves must be addressed at all levels, he said, but people can take "simple measures" to protect themselves and their loved ones. These include avoiding the sun during the hottest hours of the day, seeking shade when outside, and replacing alcohol with water.

"As obvious as it may sound, drinking water is key to preventing dehydration," he said. "Older people often don't feel thirsty, so they should be given extra attention."

More work is needed to adapt to climate change and mitigate rising temperatures, Galo said.

"Climate change should be seen as a health problem."