Global warming would save millions of lives

Global warming will increase the burden on the British health system because more people will suffer from heat-caused illness. This was the message delivered to a conference in Copenhagen this week by Alistair Hunt, a researcher at Bath University.

"I am trying to bring home the impact of climate change to everyone,"

There is one significant impact that the researcher did not "bring home" in interviews about his work: if the world warmed it would save lives.

Winter regularly takes many more lives than any heatwave: 25,000 to 50,000 people each year die in Britain from excess cold. Across Europe, there are six times more cold-related deaths than heat-related deaths. We know this from the world's biggest cross-national, peer-reviewed studies under the aegis of Professor William Keatinge of the University of London.

[The 'professional researcher' didn't think to compare cold-caused deaths when speculating on heat-caused deaths. What are the odds.]

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