Climate change
In May India was struck by a deadly heatwave. Temperatures as high as 47°C caused 2,200 deaths. This week a heatwave in Pakistan claimed the lives of hundreds more. As the chart shows, the number of extreme weather- and climate-related events is rising. Serious storms have more than doubled in frequency since the early 1980s. Floods and heatwaves have more than tripled. The human consequences may be serious. A study published this week by the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change suggests that previous estimates of the future effect of global warming on health, made by the World Health Organisation and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, are underestimates because they failed to take into account vulnerabilities caused by ageing, migration and population growth.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline "Climate change"
From the June 27th 2015 edition
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