Heat Wave Tops Weather-Related Deaths In US In Recent Past: Climate Change Meet

Heat wave is the major cause of death due to climate change, said former United States President Al Gore in a Climate & Health Meeting at Carter Center in Atlanta.

Gore said mortality rate has increased by about 4 percent during the recent heat waves period.

The event was hosted on Thursday by Gore, the American Public Health Association along with more than fifty organizations representing activists, policymakers and scientists.

Only in 2015 the major cause of death due to climate change was flooding, but during the period of 1986 to 2015 and 2006 to 2015 heat caused the most weather-related fatalities in the US.

However, on the global front flooding has been the main cause of weather-related deaths.

Climate and health assessment report of US Global Change Research Program reveals thousands to tens of thousands of premature deaths occurred due to heat waves in the summer annually by the end of the century.

Data of World Meteorological Organization finds 2016 was the hottest year of Earth on record since 1880s when the record-keeping started.

Heat waves lasted several days last year and was the major cause of weather-related deaths in the US in past more than thirty years. It was more than lightning, more than floods and even more than tornadoes.