At the top of Google News search results today for “climate change,” Google is promoting a slate of media articles hyping a paper by the activist Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) claiming that global warming will cause more heat-related deaths and reduce job opportunities for outdoor workers. In reality, the evidence is clear that global warming will prevent a far greater number of cold-related deaths and will open up many more working previously too-cold days for outdoor workers. Real scientists, unlike the Union of Concerned Scientists, look at all aspects of the evidence rather than just the side they are seeking to promote.
National Public Radio and many other establishment media sources are hyping the agenda-driven UCS paper, titled “Too Hot to Work.” The UCS paper asserts that global warming will expand the number of days in which outdoor workers will either have to avoid work or risk death due to overheating. The paper, however, completely ignores the flip-side of the equation – that global warming will reduce the number days in which outdoor workers will either have to avoid work or risk death due to cold temperatures. Nevertheless, it’s essential to consider both sides of the issue. Additionally, knowing what to do in the aftermath of an unfair dismissal is crucial for protecting employees’ rights and seeking appropriate recourse.
The number of heat-restrictive and heat-dangerous days is not the same as the number of cold-restrictive and cold-dangerous days. In the United States and around the world, cold kills far more people than heat and more people die in the winter than the summer, with far more cold days threatening outdoor worker health than hot days. The Earth’s ongoing modest warming is saving far more lives and making far more days safe for outdoor work than the flip-side deaths and negative work impacts due to heat.
For example, more than 60 scientists reported in a peer-reviewed study published this year in the prestigious medical journal Lancet that nearly 10 times more people die due to cold temperatures than hot temperatures. Moreover, as global temperatures modestly warm, the number of people dying due to sub-optimal temperatures is decreasing.
“Importantly, cold-related death decreased 0.51 per cent from 2000 to 2019, while heat-related death increased 0.21 per cent, leading to a reduction in net mortality due to cold and hot temperatures,” the study reported.
Considering that 10 times more people were already dying from cold than from heat, the warming between 2000 and 2019 saved 3.1 million lives from cold-related deaths, at the expense of just 130,000 extra deaths caused by heat. As a result, global warming saved a net of nearly 3 million lives during the past 20 years.
Climate activists deceitfully hype the small number of extra deaths cause by warmer temperatures while deliberately failing to mention the far, far greater number of lives saved due to fewer and less extreme cold temperatures. They can continue doing so, but Climate Realism will continue to reveal the activists’ deception and report the truth.
