FALSE: WARMER TEMPERATURES ARE HARMFUL
Written by Odhiambo Shem on February 17, 2023
A twitter post claiming that a warmer climate is not bad is false.
“Why is warmer bad? It’s not. Climate change is a cult for those who hate God,” states the claim.
According to the National Climate Assessment, many types of disasters including heat waves, droughts, floods and even storms are being worsened by higher temperatures. A warmer climate creates an atmosphere that can collect, retain and unleash more water, changing weather patterns in such a way that dry areas drier and wet areas wetter.
Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicates that the United States was hit by 20-billion-dollar climate and weather disasters. These included severe storms, drought, floods and wildfires, that caused at least $ 1 billion in losses individually. The 2021 disasters had a financial toll of $145 billion dollars. According to the Washington Post, over four in ten Americans live in a county that was struck by a climate related disaster in the year 2021.
Source: NOAA
A 2019 report on the state of climate in Africa, published by the World Meteorological Organization, indicates an upward trajectory in climate change threats for human health, food, water security, as well as socio-economic development in Africa.
According to the United Nations, decadal predictions between 2020-2024 indicates persistent warming as well as decrease in rainfall, more specifically over North and Southern Africa, and also an increase over Sahel.
Source: WMO
Statista records that thousands of people especially in Sudan, Somalia and South Sudan were displaced as a result of various hazards and climate-induced disasters.
The World Bank Group’s Africa’s Pulse Report released on 6th October 2021 highlights that rises in temperature, as well as changes in rainfall patterns have resulted in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events across Africa. Natural disasters including drought have gone up at a faster rate than other parts of the world.
We looked into this claim stating that a warmer climate is not bad and found it to be false.
This fact-check was produced by Sky 106.1 FM with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, International Fact-Checking Network, and African Fact Checking Alliance network.
