This The Guardian article discusses why thousands of people could perish annually in US if global heating is not curbed, study finds. Every year nearly 5,800 people are expected to die in New York, 2,500 in Los Angeles and more than 2,300 in Miami.
Scientists have warned the world is now dangerously close to breaching the 1.5C limit, which would push societies to a new reality of severe droughts, coastal flooding, wildfires and the loss of key ecosystems such as coral reefs.
But even keeping global temperatures at a 2C increase would save lives compared with the warmer alternative according to the new paper, published in Science Advances. Researchers found that 1,980 New Yorkers would be saved from a heat-related death at a 2C increase compared with 3C heating. In Los Angeles, 759 people would avoid this same fate.