What is the most deadly effect of climate change? | Sunday Observer

What is the most deadly effect of climate change?

10 October, 2021

The question is difficult because climate change doesn’t cause things on its own, it is what is known as a “risk multiplier”. So it makes other things worse, and it’s the other things that kill people.

The other difficulty in answering properly without re-writing wikipedia is that there are different futures that might occur, and the mortality rates will be different.

However, it is said, “is”, present tense, so let’s ignore the future and talk about now. Firstly, the scientists and statisticians have to agree that climate change is the cause of something via a mathematical process called attribution. Once they’ve done that, then comparisons can be made.

Hurricanes are deadly, killing hundreds.

Extreme weather e.g. severe rainfall causing floods like in Germany or mudslides like in Columbia, kill dozens. So not as deadly.

Famine, such as the current one in Mozambique, might kill thousands. However that hasn’t been officially attributed to climate change yet, because it’s a very difficult calculation involving not just weather and climate but government policies, international aid, even geo-politics. - Agency

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