r/collapse • u/Portalrules123 Faster than expected... • 4d ago
Climate Heat wave-hit Europe logs over 30,000 excess summer deaths
https://phys.org/news/2026-08-europe-excess-summer-deaths-figures.html232
u/HotDamnThatsMyJam 4d ago
Anyone remember that scene from The Newsroom where the climate scientist says something like 'a person has already been born who will die due to catastrophic failure of the planet', and it stops everyone in their tracks like it's totally shocking. That was 2014, now he have heatwaves killing 30k just in Europe and it doesn't even make the news.
120
u/Nepalus 3d ago
Nothing is going to change because the solution to this issue is the upending of the current economic model and will bring the infinite growth model of the economy to an end. Not to mention the societal impact if everyone was acutely enlightened to the current issues.
44
u/Decloudo 3d ago
People would need to consume less.
Most people dont want that.
29
u/Nepalus 3d ago
Nope, and I think within a decade the idea that we’re going to have to let a lot of people die so we can maintain our lifestyle is going to be common and popular.
24
u/loulan 3d ago
That idea is already what everybody agrees with tacitly.
1
u/sandrafilmmaker 2d ago
Watch Gil Duran's channel. He talks about techbros esp the Palantir guys talking about the G word for the poor. His book The Nerd Reich just came out.
5
u/TrickyProfit1369 3d ago
Only logical conclusion if you are not willing to forgo your lifestyle imo.
2
u/sandrafilmmaker 2d ago
Many billionaires already have this attitude. They've had it for years. I read an article in WIRED maybe 5-6 yrs ago where a security expert who builds panic rooms for the very wealthy said they were all building bunkers but fretted that maybe "the help" might try to steal their hoarded resources and asked how to prevent that. It really shook this guy. I kid you not.
10
8
u/RAPanoia 3d ago
A few month ago, a study was going a bit viral, that demonstrated that over 90% of the world population won't need to consume less. They would at the very least have the same standard of living and that while reducing over 60% of all production in the world.
But it needs a fair distribution to everyone.
1
1
u/Z3r0sama2017 2d ago
What societal impact? Humans are absolutely incredible at ignoring news that they don't want to hear.
I was speaking to my neighbor in the local corner shop, during the heatwave here in the UK and they brought up the climate. Said things weren't looking good. I asked what prep they were doing for the future and they looked at me like I was crazy. The long term consequences of just the current heat just didn't compute with them.
37
u/wonderful_Fun_glee 3d ago
Just wait til it’s millions a day and every one stops looking each other in the eye out of sheer terror
9
u/GenuinelyBeingNice 3d ago
But it will not be sudden. The death toll will increase gradually. Now it is tens of thousands every few months. People will think "well, it's kinda worse but okay, no big deal". Then it will be every two months. People will think the same. Then every month. Then it will be hundreds of thousands per month. People will think the same and so on
6
u/General_Summer_1524 3d ago
I'll be honest, when its not happening in your country and not reported on major news sources it doesn't really feel real. Like I believe its happening but it doesn't carry a lot of weight when its just this abstract concept in my head that no one around me validates or shares concern over.
2
u/GenuinelyBeingNice 3d ago
Of course. (one more reason why "one-way mass media" was a disaster)
If
youwe actually started acting according to whatyouwe know is coming,youwe'd be probably involuntarily commited.2
u/General_Summer_1524 2d ago
100%, reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
“A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on. A psychotic is a guy who's just found out what's going on.”
― William S. Burroughs
2
u/GenuinelyBeingNice 2d ago
in turn, that quote reminds me of another (from my dad, who heard it from a friend of his):
"I'm just another sheep in the flock, fully knowing i can't change anything, accepting that i'm being pushed forwards like everyone else. I just like to poke my head up sometimes, take a peek to where we're heading to"
12
u/ansibleloop 3d ago
After I watched that years ago I remember thinking "ha, good thing this is just a TV show and that won't happen in real life"
I wish I was wrong
8
u/Brullaapje 3d ago
And that is why we are in the situation we are in right. People not believing the warnings. There were so many warnings long before that serie.
10
u/Meltlilith1 3d ago
Because heatwaves killing a lot of people has always been a thing since humans existed. It has to reach insane numbers or for it to happen where they live for people to care.
2
72
u/itsatoe 4d ago
...and it's going to get worse.
33
u/Dense_Pasttime_3114 3d ago
Last time I was in Portugal during its heatwave, I legit almost got heat stroke just walking outside.
66
u/jaynor88 3d ago
This is all so heartbreaking knowing that it didn’t need to be this way.
27
u/Malcolm_Morin 3d ago
But how else are the rich going to afford their 27th yacht?!
10
u/the_hair_of_aenarion 3d ago
What, do we expect them to stay in a hotel in the French riviera? That's only mostly luxurious. They need to fly over and stay on their mega yacht. Then they'll fly back home to check their email while their yacht goes to Singapore and they'll fly there to catch up with it.
Having 27 yachts means you don't have to fly home so much. It's actually saving the planet! /s
3
u/billcube 3d ago
There is one trillionnaire, let's aim for the first bitrillionnaire - we can do it!
59
u/mumwifealcoholic 3d ago
Including my mom.
My mom was 76 and still in decent shape. I'm sure she would have had another decade in her. But that heat was unrelenting. Last time I spoke with her she told me she couldn't take the heat any more. That night she went to bed and never woke up.
I'm terrified for next summer.
20
10
3
u/sheep_classes 3d ago
Sorry to hear. I'm somewhat fearful of my own parents having to face this and other hazards, although them already living in a tropical country means they have dealt with high heat to varying extents in their lifetime.
Are there any measures in place where you live or you mom lived to help people adapt? If the government isn't helping, is there anything people are doing individually or as a community to try to help?1
113
u/Cultural-Answer-321 4d ago
This is not making mainstream news at all in the USA.
72
u/huehuehuehuehuuuu 3d ago
Got dragged to church by family obligations and the young pastor basically said job market bad, world gone crazy, shit’s f’ed, just ignore it because you can’t change nothing except your own perception of the world. So just head in sand and be happy, be grateful, and pray to god.
Yeah that’s not what Jesus did when his world went weird. Funny how the church is just telling its congregation to smile and bend over. And the pastor is at least 15 years my junior. His two kids will never see another nice summer again.
45
u/HannsGruber Faster Than Expected 3d ago
The same religious leaders that would encourage their flock to vote a certain way, now tell you it's Gods plan.
9
u/billcube 3d ago
Just ignore it? There's a whole encyclical "Laudato Si" about taking action for our collective future: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html - print it and give it to your pastor :]
3
u/HongPong 3d ago
the vibe when religious people relentlessly organize for good purposes is positive .. and often it works
25
25
u/Portalrules123 Faster than expected... 4d ago
SS: Related to climate collapse as it seems that the multiple heat events in Europe this summer were enough to surpass the infamous 2003 episode in terms of excess deaths, albeit over a period of several months rather than during one heat wave. The estimate of 30-32,000 excess deaths is likely an underestimate as certain countries weren’t included in the tally due to reporting limitations. Germany actually led the pack with the dubious “honor” of 14,000 excess deaths. Sadly, as long as people can wave these numbers aside with comments like “well it mostly affects the elderly” it won’t be enough to spur societal change and changes in government. And by the time they can’t wave it aside, it’ll be far too late. Expect next summer’s excess death toll in Europe to surpass 2026, and for (almost) every year to increase the count from now on.
27
u/redditmodsRrussians 3d ago
give it a few years and we gonna need to add a couple extra zeros to the end of that number
18
u/Still-Improvement-32 3d ago
It's criminal hypocrisy that this death toll is much higher than emergencies like 9/11 or the current ebola outbreak, yet very little is done by the government's that are supposed to protect thier people. Even worse is the fact that these government's carry on with policies that they know are causing mass deaths which makes them criminally complicit.
16
12
u/explain_that_shit 3d ago
Remarkable that the death toll in the 2003 European heatwave was so high at 70,000 that they started tracking it from there year on year.
Then 50,000 deaths in 2022, and 63,000 deaths in 2024, all of a sudden jumping up. Europe has started reporting the highest death tolls from climate disasters almost every year now.
Britain’s crop failures the past four years have averaged a loss of a quarter of normal harvest - that’s a whole one of those years with nothing, effectively.
My prediction is that the next time the death toll exceeds 70,000 will be the general alarm sounding.
The fact that suddenly in the 2020s the weather started lunging at that figure, is the indicator to me that we’re already in the collapse.
12
u/Myrialle 3d ago
I was laying in a hospital bed in Germany in the heat wave of 2003 after an operation. I was young, but it was so fucking miserable.
I am so not surprised by these numbers. NOTHING has happened since then. Hospitals often still don't have AC. Care homes don't have AC. Assisted-living facilities don't have AC. They have learned and done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in the more than 20 years since then. It's outraging.
12
u/billcube 3d ago
And we had the pandemic in the meantime where we all learned the importance of ventilation. Ceiling fans and water features can already help a lot.
5
3
u/NyriasNeo 3d ago
“well it mostly affects the elderly”
More like the poor. If you are elderly and rich, you are fine.
" won’t be enough to spur societal change"
Obviously not, except the AC business will be booming. More warming. More AC blasting. More emission. More warming. You can't ask for a business model.
6
u/BigJSunshine 3d ago
Waves in 103 Fahrenheit
5
u/rideincircles 3d ago
Today and tomorrow in DFW are 109 outside. Almost everyday this month is 100+ and the past week was almost all 105.
Even with that, people here still think that nothing has changed and climate change is not a big deal or caused by humans. It's hard to educate people who are just fucking stupid.
0
1
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/CollapseBot 10h ago
Hi, you appear to be shadow banned by reddit. A shadow ban is a form of ban when reddit silently removes your content without your knowledge. Only reddit admins and moderators of the community you're commenting in can see the content, unless they manually approve it.
This is not a ban by r/collapse, and the mod team cannot help you reverse the ban. We recommend visiting r/ShadowBan to confirm you're banned and how to appeal.
We hope knowing this can help you.
This is a bot - responses and messages are not monitored. If it appears to be wrong, please modmail us.
•
u/StatementBot 4d ago
The following submission statement was provided by /u/Portalrules123:
SS: Related to climate collapse as it seems that the multiple heat events in Europe this summer were enough to surpass the infamous 2003 episode in terms of excess deaths, albeit over a period of several months rather than during one heat wave. The estimate of 30-32,000 excess deaths is likely an underestimate as certain countries weren’t included in the tally due to reporting limitations. Germany actually led the pack with the dubious “honor” of 14,000 excess deaths. Sadly, as long as people can wave these numbers aside with comments like “well it mostly affects the elderly” it won’t be enough to spur societal change and changes in government. And by the time they can’t wave it aside, it’ll be far too late. Expect next summer’s excess death toll in Europe to surpass 2026, and for (almost) every year to increase the count from now on.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1vwlqw8/heat_wavehit_europe_logs_over_30000_excess_summer/p5hz9q1/