Seasonality of mortality under climate change: a multicountry projection study
The link between climate change and temperature is fairly obvious and well-established. This study takes that one step further and models mortality associated with future changing temperatures. This study, published in the Lancet Planetary Health, uses the Multi-Country Multi-City Collaborative (MCC) Research Network. This dataset sounds extremely valuable and I’d be curious to see what other research comes from it. Here, the authors report on data from 43 countries and 707 locations and estimate changing mortality through 2099. Their analysis suggests that in many countries, mortality will shift from the colder seasons to warmer seasons, as well as the magnitude of the changes being greater by the end of the century. Read the full article here.
Mortality associated with climate change is significant and under-appreciated. In this Nature Medicine commentary, Colin Carlson from the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center argues that mortality associated with climate change has been understood, at least to some extent, since the early 2000's. Given the magnitude of mortality, or more importantly preventable mortality, climate change should be treated appropriately as an emergency and motivate stakeholders similar to what was seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. It's also worth highlighting another paper by Dr Carlson, calling for more research to understand and better quantify the global burden of climate change. Click here to read the commentary.