'Silent killer': the science of tracing climate deaths in heatwaves
www.digitaljournal.com

... A heatwave scorching Europe had barely subsided in early July when scientists published estimates that 2,300 people may have died across a dozen major cities during the extreme, climate-fuelled episode.

The figure was supposed to "grab some attention" and sound a timely warning in the hope of avoiding more needless deaths, said Friederike Otto, one of the scientists involved in the research.

"We are still relatively early in the summer, so this will not have been the last heatwave. There is a lot that people and communities can do to save lives," Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, told AFP.

Heat can claim tens of thousands of lives during European summers but it usually takes months, even years, to count the cost of this "silent killer". ...