Heat deaths are being hyped, while deaths from the cold are ignored

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Global warming does cause more heat waves, and these raise the risk that more people die because of heat. But it also brings a reduction in cold temperatures, reducing the risk that people die from the cold. Almost everywhere in the world - not just Canada - cold kills five to 15 times more people than heat.

Heat gets a lot of attention both because of its obvious link to climate change and because it is visible and photogenic. It usually kills within a few days of temperatures getting too high, because it alters the fluid and electrolytic balances in weaker, often older people.

Cold, on the other hand, kills slowly, often over months. At low temperatures, the body constricts outer blood vessels to conserve heat, driving up blood pressure. High blood pressure is the world's leading killer, responsible for 19 per cent of all deaths.

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A recent Lancet study shows that if we count all the additional deaths from too-hot temperatures globally, heat kills nearly half a million people a year. But too-cold temperatures are more than nine times deadlier, killing over 4.5 million people.

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