Commentary
“Extreme heat kills more people in the United States than any other weather hazard,” is the first claim in this Washington Post piece warning about the deadly summer heat—and it is almost certainly false. Similar warnings about the deadly weather appear in virtually every mainstream media outlet.
First off, the only reason “extreme” temperature kills more people than other weather hazards is that deaths from weather have plummeted over the century—even as doomsday climate warnings about heat, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and droughts have spiked. All extreme weather accounts for only about 0.1 death for every 100,000 people in the United States each year. That is a massive drop from the time of your grandparents. The Post and others should be celebrating the fact that humans have never been less threatened by the climate in history….