Climate Change To Kill Thousands Of New Yorkers Yearly By 2080

Around 60 years from now, scientists said that around 3,000 New Yorkers could die each year due to intense heat brought about by climate change. By the year 2080, the number of hot days could triple, causing death by heat exhaustion, dehydration, or heart and respiratory conditions.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives say that with so many hot days over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, an estimated 3,331 people in New York could die each year. Lead author Elisaveta Petkova made a comparison to a heatwave in Europe in 2003 that claimed the lives of tens and thousands of people.

Petkova and her colleagues traced five different demographic models for their study, and they projected excess deaths from heat under a low and a high greenhouse gas emission scenario. The result showed that higher greenhouse gas emissions would lead to more fatalities. "Aging of the population is probably the most important trend, since older adults are more vulnerable to heat-related health effects," the study's co-author, Patrick Kinney told Scientific American in an email.

"This study just highlighted how important it is to take proactive measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," shared Petkova.

While this could affect a lot of people, air toxicity and climate change needs to put emphasis on their effects on children. Carbon dioxide sources like cars, factories, and power plants produce harmful products that can have devastating effects on children - including those in utero, leading to problems like premature birth and neurodevelopmental problems, some of which still take a few years to manifest themselves.

If this goes on, more and more children will be put in danger, not to mention the rest of the population who will have to suffer through the rising temperatures that Reuters noted will be as high as 5.3 to 8.8 degrees Fahrenheit by then.