New analysis shows dramatic improvement
London, 8 May: A new report from the Global Warming Policy Foundation reveals that there have been dramatic falls in climate-related mortality over the last 30 years. The study’s author, Indur Goklany, says that these improvements have been seen in almost every category:
“You see improvement across the board, but most notably there has been a wholesale rolling back of the biggest killers like diarrhea and malaria.”
Goklany’s report makes strong criticisms of the Lancet Countdown, a review of climate-related mortality published by the prominent medical journal, which he says has cherry-picked information and used misleading figures in order to give a false impression of a worsening situation.
“They highlight comparatively rare conditions, like dengue, which have worsened, while ignoring the wider picture, which is almost all good news. It’s highly misleading.”
Note for editors:
Indur Goklany is an independent scholar and author. He was a member of the US delegation that established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and helped develop its First Assessment Report. He subsequently served as a US delegate to the IPCC, and an IPCC reviewer.
Full Report: The Lancet Countdown on Climate Change: The need for context (pdf)
