Global warming is real... and kills 115 CDMX residents a year

Do you think global warming is something “out of reach”? We have news for you: It’s real and every year it kills about 115 Mexico City residents.

A study published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change suggests that about three out of every 10 heat-related deaths around the world can be attributed to the effects of climate change.

The study, led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, combines data from 732 local sites in 43 countries, collected since 1991, to investigate the link between the increase in mortality observed for decades with global warming that has occurred. Universe.

It is estimated that 37 percent of all heat-related deaths in late summer are attributable to global warming due to human activities, those related to human impact on nature.

The regions most affected by this phenomenon were Central and South America with up to 76 percent in countries like Ecuador or Colombia, for example, and Southeast Asia with rates ranging from 48 to 61 percent.

But how can these deaths be attributed to global warming? To reach this result, the researchers modeled two scenarios: one with thermal evolution without the contribution of anthropogenic emissions and the other with this effect.

Thus, of the total populations studied, in the scenario without anthropogenic emissions, 0.98% of summer deaths were due to heat, but when greenhouse gases were added, the proportion increased to 1.56%.

Estimates also showed the number of annual deaths from human-caused climate change in some specific cities: 115 in Mexico City, 189 in Athens, 172 in Rome, 156 in Tokyo, 177 in Madrid, 146 in Bangkok, 82 in London, 141 in New York and 137 in Ho Chi Minh City, etc.

“The message is clear: not only will climate change have devastating effects in the future, but all continents are already suffering from the dire consequences of human activities on our planet. We must act now,” warned Antonio Gasparini, professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and lead author. from this search.