Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Number Of People At Risk From Extreme Heat Will Double By 2050
NPR: Study Finds Over 200 Million Seniors Face Extreme Heat Risks In Coming Decades
A person in their 40s now will be nearing 70 in the year 2050. And they won't be alone, because the world is undergoing an unprecedented and inexorable shift: by 2050, scientists project, more than 20% of Earth's population will be over 60. That demographic shift coincides with another major change: the Earth heating up because of human-caused climate change. The confluence of those two factors represents an enormous risk, says Giacomo Falchetta, the lead author of a new paper published Tuesday in Nature Communications. (Borunda, 5/14)
AP: Climate: Last Northern Summer Was The Warmest In More Than 2,000 Years, Tree Rings Show
The broiling summer of 2023 was the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere in more than 2,000 years, a new study found. ... A study Tuesday in the journal Nature uses a well-established method and record of more than 10,000 tree rings to calculate summertime temperatures for each year since the year 1. No year came even close to last summer’s high heat, said lead author Jan Esper, a climate geographer at the Gutenberg Research College in Germany. (Borenstein, 5/14)
Stat: Hottest Summer In 2,000 Years Puts Focus On Extreme Heat, Health
Last summer’s heat waves demonstrated all the ways that extreme heat takes a toll on the human body. In cities across the U.S. from Phoenix to New York, people suffered from heat exhaustion, heat stroke, heat cramps, and more. In Texas, more than 300 people died from heat last year — the highest number since the state started tracking the deaths in 1989. (Gaffney, 5/14)
KFF Health News: After A Child’s Death, California Weighs Rules For Phys Ed During Extreme Weather
Yahushua Robinson was an energetic boy who jumped and danced his way through life. Then, a physical education teacher instructed the 12-year-old to run outside on a day when the temperature climbed to 107 degrees. “We lose loved ones all the time, but he was taken in a horrific way,” his mother, Janee Robinson, said from the family’s Inland Empire home, about 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles. “I would never want nobody to go through what I’m going through.” (Young, 5/15)
