Media Continues To Claim Heat Kills More Than Cold

Written by Dr. Matthew Wielicki on October 24, 2025. Posted in Current News

One of the major cornerstones of the ‘climate crisis’ narrative is not just a slight rise in global temperatures itself, but the supposed add-on effects that this warming will trigger

Proponents of this view, including figures like Al Gore and reports from the IPCC, have long warned that even modest increases in average temperatures will make vast regions of the planet too hot for human habitation.

They claim this will force billions of people to migrate in search of cooler climates, leading to massive disruptions in societies, economies, and ecosystems.

The idea is that heatwaves will become so intense and frequent that entire areas, particularly in tropical and subtropical zones, will become unlivable, sparking what they call a climate migration crisis of unprecedented scale.

But what if this doomsday tale is not only overhyped—it’s dead wrong, flipped on its head by the very data alarmists ignore?

What if the data shows that it’s cold, not heat, that poses the far greater threat to human life, and that a warmer world might actually save lives rather than endanger them?

Why push heat hysteria when cold is the silent killer claiming millions?

Over the years, I have written extensively about how the media and climate activists sensationalize heat to push their agenda, while ignoring or downplaying the real story behind temperature trends.

For example, in my article titled It’s Almost Summer Let the Heatwave Hysteria Begin, I explained how every year the press ramps up stories about urban heat spikes, blaming them entirely on ‘greenhouse gases’ from human activities like driving cars or using energy.

I pointed out that these spikes are often due to the urban heat island effect, where concrete, asphalt, and buildings trap heat in cities, making them warmer than surrounding rural areas, regardless of global climate trends.

This effect is a local phenomenon caused by development, not a sign of a planetary crisis.

In another piece, Heat Waves Show No Correlation with Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Concentrations or Emissions, I delved into historical records to show that heatwaves are more likely the result of expanding urban areas and the urban heat island effect than rising carbon dioxide levels.

Ambient temperature refers to the air temperature in a given environment, and ‘greenhouse gases’ are compounds like carbon dioxide and methane that, it is claimed, trap heat in the atmosphere.

Yet, data from the United States reveals that the highest heat index, which combines temperature and humidity to measure how hot it feels to the human body, occurred back in the 1930s, long before modern emissions peaked.

This challenges the idea that more ‘greenhouse gases’ automatically mean more deadly heatwaves.

Image: Tony Heller

I have also highlighted how ‘fossil fuels’, the energy sources derived from ancient organic matter like coal, oil, and natural gas, play a critical role in combating heat waves.

In Fossil Fuels’ Critical Role in Combating Heat Waves, I discussed how access to reliable energy from these sources enables air conditioning, refrigeration, and other technologies that protect people from extreme temperatures.

Without them, societies would be far more vulnerable to both heat and cold. To illustrate, consider a comparison from that article: before widespread ‘fossil fuel’ use, people endured heat waves with limited options like seeking shade or using fans, resulting in higher mortality; after, modern infrastructure like cooled buildings has dramatically reduced those risks.

Furthermore, when traditional temperature data does not support the alarmist story, new metrics are introduced to muddy the waters. In Heat Index Wet Bulb Globe Temperature New Metrics When Temperatures Don’t Cooperate, I explained how the heat index accounts for humidity’s impact on perceived temperature, and the wet bulb globe temperature measures heat stress in direct sunlight, factoring in temperature, humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation.

These are useful for specific contexts like outdoor work, but they are often used to claim unprecedented heat when plain temperature records show no such thing.

For instance, while temperatures today are not surpassing those from decades ago in many places, these alternative measures are hyped to suggest otherwise.

Adding to this, many reported heat waves are not as natural as they seem. In Jet-Fueled Lies Tampa’s Fake Temperature Record, I exposed how a record high temperature in Tampa, Florida, was measured at a weather station located near an airport runway, where a jet engine was idling nearby, artificially boosting the reading with exhaust heat.

Weather stations are devices that record environmental data like temperature, and the urban heat island effect can skew readings when they are placed near heat sources like pavement or… jet engines.

This example shows how poor station placement can create fabricated records that fuel media panic.

All of this sets up the idea that the climate crisis narrative desperately tries to convince people that heat is the primary danger, and that adding more heat to the system through ‘greenhouse gases’ will lead to widespread death and displacement.

In reality, the data tells a different story: cold is the real threat, and warming might alleviate it.

A recently published working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, titled Understanding and Addressing Temperature Impacts on Mortality, by a team of researchers including Marshall Burke and others, analyzes decades of data from 30 countries in North America and Europe.

This paper confirms that ambient temperature is responsible for five to 12 percent of all deaths in these regions, amounting to hundreds of thousands of lives lost each year.

Crucially, it finds that in every context examined, cold causes far more deaths than heat – often by a factor of five or more.

See more here substack.com

Bold emphasis added

Header image: The Lancet 2015 article showing cold kills far more people than heat

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