Wrong, Mainstream Media, Hajj Deaths Not Unusual or Due to Climate Change
By
H. Sterling Burnett
June 27, 2024
Dozens of mainstream media outlets have run stories in the past week linking the heat related deaths during the annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia to climate change. There is no such connection. Data shows that Saudi Arabia has warmed less than half the global average during the recent period of warming, with no increase in average summer temperatures. In addition, deaths during the annual Hajj pilgrimage are common historically, and when they are related to heat stress they have factors in common, but climate change is not among them.
Axios, The Washington Post, the Associated Press, USA Today, and the New York Times, among dozens of other mainstream media outlets covered the more than 1,300 heat related deaths that occurred during the Hajj this year.
Some background is warranted. The Hajj is a mandatory religious pilgrimage that all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey must make at least once in their lifetime. The Hajj consists in part of a number of physically demanding rituals, including long walks, standing on the desert plain from sunrise to sunset, and praying in the outdoors for extended periods of time. Published data indicates that between 2000 and 2019 the average number of Hajj pilgrims was 2,269,145 per year, of which nearly 70 percent came from outside Saudi Arabia, many from countries where more moderate temperatures are the norm.
https://climaterealism.com/2024/06/wrong-mainstream-media-hajj-deaths-not-unusual-or-due-to-climate-change/
