Compassion for the People Freezing

“Compassion for the People Freezing”, Carmel Pine Cone – Dec. 2, 2022

Over four million people die yearly from freezing to death. A much smaller number die from overheating. Science history is very clear that humankind’s most healthful, food abundant, and disease-free eras were times where temperature was one degree or more Celsius warmer (e.g. the Roman and Medieval Warm Periods) than today. There is no existential threat from a present warming trend; in fact, deaths from hurricanes and flooding are declining steadily for the last century while global temperatures have risen by 0.6 degrees Celsius. Thus wouldn’t we be more compassionate not to fret about the slight current temperature rise, and reduce the number of freezing deaths by allowing Earth’s temperature to rise by half a degree?

Dr. C. Michael Hogan, Monterey County