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Heat Waves Killed an Estimated 50,000 in European Cities, a Likely Record (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 4 days ago by to c/news@lemmy.world
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This summer’s heat was the continent’s deadliest by far this century, according to new peer-reviewed estimates.

The papers are here & here

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[–] 1 point 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (6 children)

Marginally? Do you have a citation about this for European towns and cities? In any case, a multi-pronged approach is needed: 1. Reduce CO2 emissions, 2. Promote passive cooling (trees, shade, insulation,…) 3. Use airco in critical locations . Most city councils are already doing this… although some political parties are still in the climate collapse denial phase, so (1) is in some towns ignored.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 days ago* (3 children)

    3 is the key to save lives now imo. Many hospitals, schools, and even retirement homes in Germany don't have AC. There needs to be AC in buildings serving vulnerable populations and public buildings offering AC during these extreme weather events.

    Europe is not prepared to handle the heat. It's going to be even warmer this summer with the El niño.

    1 is the most important to save lives in the long run though

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  • [+] -4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)
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  • [–] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

    I'm sorry what is the point here? How does bitching about Americans have anything to do with preventing the elderly and vulnerable from having heat stroke?

    Edit: The above poster completely changed their comment. At first it was a rant that talked about how Americans complain it's hot when they visit Europe and are too lazy to use the stairs

    But let's look at the data since they added it, the US had top recorded heat deaths of 10,000. Europe had 50,000 last year. US has a population of 350 million and Europe as a continent has 745 million. To keep round numbers Europe has 2.15 times more population than the US, but heat deaths were 5 times greater. These are not similar rates. Excessive heat deaths would have to have been 21,500 across the entire continent to be a comparable rate

    Also I'm being extremely generous as per the source data provided by the OP only urban areas in select countries were studied. Meaning these areas had even higher deaths per capita than the US.

    "Researchers from Imperial and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine analysed expected heat mortality in 854 urban areas across 30 countries (EU-27, UK, Switzerland and Norway) during June-August 2026."

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  • [–] 5 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    Nah, just spitballing. But judiciously used A/C can't realistically be more than 10-20% of overall power consumption, right? Probably no worse than adding a few more AI datacenters, and those datacenters sure aren't saving 50,000 lives.

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