A group of researchers led by scientists from and have analyzed it from a climate change focused perspective that lived a good part of Europe at the end of June and early July. Specifically, they have focused their study to 12 major cities – among which Madrid and Barcelona appear – and in the premature deaths caused by high temperatures. In total, from June 23 to July 2, scientists estimate that 2,305 deaths attributable to heat were recorded, 340 correspond to Barcelona and 118 to Madrid.
The rest of the analyzed cities are London, Paris, Frankfurt, Budapest, Zagreb, Athens, Rome, Milan, Sár and Lisbon. In all these cities, where 30 million people live, neighbors have been at some time in heat alert in the period studied. But the objective of was trying to quantify the influence that climate change has caused, fundamentally, by burning fossil fuels in that wave and in the deaths associated with heat.
The scientists conclude that the warming made that wave more intense was responsible for 1,500 of the 2,305 premature deaths accumulated in those 12 cities and that they link with this extreme event. That is, 65% of those deaths are attributable to climate change. Or, explained in another way: that the planet is already 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer than in the preindustrial era due to the human being has tripled the death rate.
What researchers argue is that climate change makes early heat waves, such as the one lived this year, are more frequent. And, in the case of the cities analyzed, between 2 and 4 warmer degrees and, therefore, more lethal for the elderly and suffering from diseases that are aggravated with extreme temperatures.
For its part, the European Satellite Surveillance Service Copernicus stands out in its monthly climate bulletin the “two large heat waves in the middle of June” that “affected much of Western and South Europe”. “In large part of the region, temperatures were recorded that exceeded 38 degrees, which corresponds to a very strong thermal stress,” says Copernicus.
Samantha Burgess, strategic climate director of the European Center for Middle Term weather forecasts, also dependent on the Copernicus program, has assured of the last wave that “became more intense by the record temperatures of the sea surface in the Western Mediterranean.” It also warns: “In a world that is heated, heat waves are likely to be more frequent, more intense and affect more people throughout Europe.” On the whole of the continent, last month was the fifth warmer June registered so far; .
Researchers from the study on death also highlight that “heat came unusually early in many parts of Europe, where temperatures are normally expected at the end of July or August” as those lived during the analyzed heat wave. “The extreme heat that occurs at the beginning of the season tends to be more mortal, since people are not yet acclimatized at summer temperatures,” they warn.
Climate change is precisely making “the intensity of heat waves in June has increased more abruptly than those of July.” “The temperatures of the heat waves will continue to increase and it is likely that the number of future deaths is greater, until the world stops burning oil, gas and coal and reaching zero net emissions,” says the researchers.
