Climate crisis: 50 additional days of extreme heat for each of us!

Climate crisis: 50 additional days of extreme heat for each of us!

The alarming facts are there: climate change brings dangerous temperatures and increasing death figures! According to a new report by the Lancet Countdown, which was created by 122 experts, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the average person experienced 50 additional days with extreme temperatures in 2023, the hottest year of all times. These frightening numbers are not just statistics - they are a call to act!

The experts warn: The current political measures lead the world to a dangerous course of 2.7 degrees Celsius warming up to 2100. Of 15 indicators that have been pursued over the past eight years, 10 worrying new records have reached. The increase in heat -related deaths in older people, which rose by 167 percent compared to the 1990s, is particularly alarming. Marina Belen Romanello, the managing director of the Lancet Countdown, emphasizes: "The deaths associated with climate change are increasing year after year."

The economic consequences are devastating

But that's not all! The extreme temperatures also have massive economic effects. In the past year, an estimated 512 billion working hours were lost, which costs hundreds of billions of dollars of potential income. The authors of the report make it clear that large oil and gas companies as well as some governments and banks further heat the fire of climate change. Despite the record profits, these companies have increased their fossil fuel production, while many countries provided new subsidies for fossil fuels to combat rising oil and gas prices.

Food supply is also endangered: up to 48 percent of the global land area were affected by extreme drought conditions last year, which led to an increase in nutritional uncertainty for 151 million people. Extreme rains also affected about 60 percent of the areas, which led to floods and an increased risk of water pollution and infectious diseases. The threat of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes such as Dengue also increases.