Last summer was the hottest season in 2,000 years, a new research paper published in the journal Nature concluded.
Those in the Northern Hemisphere may have been pleased to have a hot summer; however, natural disasters triggered by rapidly changing temperatures were not warmly received.
The Council on Foreign Relations listed some of the worst climate-related disasters to happen last summer, including the wildfire that scorched Hawaii causing 5.5 billion dollars in damages, torrential rains in Libya that destroyed 25% of the city Derna and killed over 4,300 people with thousands still missing.
“When you look at the long sweep of history, you can see just how dramatic recent global warming is,” said the new study´s co-author Jan Esper.
Esper explained that the abnormal heat was heightened by the El Niño climate pattern, which normally interconnects with warmer temperatures and drought.
The intense heatwaves are causing a rise in death tolls, as over 150,000 deaths across 43 countries have been linked to heatwaves between the years 1990 and 2019, according to a new study published by PLoS Medicine.
The total accounts for approximately 1% of global deaths, which equates to a similar quantity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The regions that recorded the highest excess deaths were Greece, Malta, and Italy. Each year, around 250 people die in Morocco due to heat-related illnesses, according to a report published in The Lancet.