A new scientific study on the effects of climate change in Europe has revealed that the French capital will become the most dangerous and deadly city for people due to drought and rising temperatures, while London will become the city where the risk of death from falling temperatures increases.
The study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health in early April, was conducted by researchers from England, and aimed to identify areas that will pose a risk to the population of the old continent due to climate change, and then prepare for the possibility of any natural disasters related to it.
The study included 854 European cities, through which scientific data collected over 20 years, between January 2000, 31 and December 2019, <>, were analyzed by international scientific bodies such as the Multi-city Collaborative Research Network and the European climate watchdog Copernicus, which enabled these researchers to develop approaches to determine the places of danger caused by extreme temperatures.
Risk of death from cold in London increases due to lack of heating (Pixaby)
Western Europe's Most Fragile Region
According to the report, published by Futura, researchers found that Western Europe is the most vulnerable and vulnerable to the effects of climate change from its east, and that the risk of death due to high or low temperatures is the highest.
The researchers identified two main reasons for the possibility of turning Paris into a dangerous city, namely the nature of the architecture and the architecture of its streets that do not enable it to cope with the heat and droughts, as well as recording high rates of high temperatures in the past compared to other cities, where the difference in 2003 was about 10 degrees, which is a very high number.
In Northern Europe, the researchers found that London is the city where the risk of death will be higher by the severity of the cold than others, and more than 200,2000 deaths from the cold have already been recorded during the study period (2019-<>).
It is not the drop in average temperatures that London will be the most dangerous city to die from the cold, because there are colder cities, but because of poverty and the lack of heating for many residents.
Drought and high temperature are among the most life-threatening manifestations of climate change (Pixaby)
Characteristics of the cities under study
According to the study, about 40% of Europe's population living in areas with no more than 50,<> inhabitants was excluded, as well as cities outside the geographical area of this continent where only cities with populations exceeding this number were adopted.
The 854 approved cities are located in 30 European countries, 232 of which have good average temperature data and are recorded periodically. As for the rest of the cities, the data were intermittent over time, but this does not detract from their scientific value.
The population surveyed was about 200 million, with the United Kingdom at the top of the most represented countries with about 35 million people living in 135 cities, while Luxembourg came at the bottom of the ranking with about 90,<> people.
The study concluded that the high degrees of risk due to high or low temperature in some cities does not mean that the rest of the cities will be safe, because there are several factors that must be taken into account, especially age, as the elderly and children are the most vulnerable than others, and living outside Paris or London is not synonymous with getting out of the circle of danger.