Europeans can easily adapt to rising temperatures. – Watts Up With That?

We hear a lot about how European heat waves are caused by climate change and that people will die! Apparently because they can’t handle air conditioning…or something. This new study puts the kibosh on those claims. Via Friends of Science:

Outpacing Climate Change: Adaptation to Heatwaves in Europe
A new paper analyzed mortality, temperatures and electricity use to investigate the adaptation to heatwaves in Europe over the period 2000 to 2022. The paper found that Europeans can tolerate an additional 1°C of temperature rise every 18 years without an increase in mortality.

Increasing economic output enabled tolerating each additional 1 °C due to a per capita GDP increase of 20 thousand euros, most likely due to greater air conditioning affordability. The study emphasizes the importance of economic growth and reducing energy poverty for reducing heat-related mortality. The analysis included 85 regions across 25 countries that had complete data across all required variables.

Long-term studies have shown a significant decline in heat-related deaths despite increasing temperatures. Unfortunately, current predictions of climate change impacts assume little or no adaptation to climate change, falsely projecting significantly increased heatwave mortality.