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Comment by joenot443 | Hacker News Reader

These metrics are hard to grapple with when "living with extreme heat" isn't something most people can conceptualize.

Findings from 2025 -

> Over the 12-month period, 4 billion people — about 49% of the global population — experienced at least 30 days of extreme heat (hotter than 90% of temperatures observed in their local area over the 1991-2020 period). [1]

[1] https://www.climatecentral.org/report/climate-change-and-the...

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That statement seems totally empty and could be true even if those 12 months in 2024-25 were cooler. 10% of days in 1991-2020 were hotter than 90% of days in 1991-2020, which is on average 36.5 days in a 12 month period.

I can't see the methodology, but it would shock me if they did not take into account the local high based on the time of year.

Edit: In the methodology section it is not clear whether they used one average or average for the date.

Yes, I expect the problem is in this summarisation of the research, not the research itself.

You would be surprised how many people on Earth experience extreme cold and die because od it. It's much more deadly than heat. Spreading fear over heat looks like propaganda to frighten people's mind.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/pdf/10.1289/EHP9835

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01872-6

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001393512...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266660652...

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20180594

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-09049-4

A couple of years ago I was read news articles about heat waves so severe that birds were falling down the sky. Pretty apocalyptic.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people...

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