HEAT HYPE: UN Chief Overstates Extreme Heat Deaths, Cold Kills 30X More
by Bjorn Lomborg Nov 20, 2024
There’s a reason we heard so much about extreme heat deaths over the summer: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made a “call to action” on extreme heat that prompted mandarins across his vast organization to issue warnings without letting the facts get in the way of a good story. [emphasis, links added]
The World Health Organization trumpeted the disturbing finding that in Europe, more than 175,000 people die yearly because of extreme heat. That was a fourfold exaggeration.
When called out, the organization quietly edited their online publication to remove the word “extreme” — only after media outlets had carried the catastrophic news.
While it fixed the error online, it didn’t find room to mention that extreme heat is the smallest temperature risk for Europe, with cold killing 13 times more people.
That wouldn’t fit the secretary-general’s call to action.
https://climatechangedispatch.com/heat-hype-un-chief-overstates-extreme-heat-deaths-cold-kills-30x-more/
