Deadly heat is killing Americans: A decade of inaction on climate puts lives at risk

[Jersey Devlin]

Dean Russell, Elisabeth Gawthrop, Veronica Penney, Ali Raj and Bridget Hickey, Columbia Journalism Investigations
Tue 16 Jun 2020 02.00 EDT

Yearly heat-related deaths have more than doubled in Arizona in the last decade to 283. Across the country, heat caused at least 10,000 deaths between 1999 and 2016 – more than hurricanes, tornadoes or floods in most years.

Scientists link the warming planet to a rise in dangerous heat in the US, as well as the spread of infectious diseases and other health conditions. Federal research predicts heatstroke and similar illnesses will claim tens of thousands of American lives each year by the end of the century. Already, higher temperatures pose lethal risks: the five warmest years nationwide have all occurred since 2006. In the last six decades, the number of annual heatwaves in 50 US cities has, on average, tripled. In contrast to a viral pandemic, this is a quiet, insidious threat with no end point.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is charged with helping cities and states adapt to threats like extreme heat. Its climate program, created more than 10 years ago, is the federal government’s only sustained effort to bolster state and local health departments’ fight against global warming. But the program has been hampered by a decade of underfunding, limited expertise and political resistance, Columbia Journalism Investigations and the Center for Public Integrity found.

Interviews with more than 100 people and a review of hundreds of pages of government records show the Obama administration, while pushing measures to combat climate change, missed opportunities to expand the program. Under Donald Trump, officials have tried to eliminate it.

The tepid federal response has left state and local health workers ill-equipped to act, exposing communities to underappreciated threats that will only get worse.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/16/climate-deaths-heat-cdc

BUGGER OFF, SATAN WE"RE BUILDING OUR OWN DAMN HELL!