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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

About time! The Government is to advise Britons this autumn to stock up on food, water and other essentials to protect themselves against disruption in an increasingly unstable world. Many other countries took this sensible step years ago. inews.co.uk/news/politic...

inews.co.uk

The nine doomsday essentials you will be officially told to stockpile at home

Hotels could be requisitioned in the event of war or disaster under newly revealed emergency plans for the UK

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

We spend more than 33 times as much on destroying the life that sustains us as we do on preserving it. A staggering $7.3 trillion is spent each year in activities that devastate nature, compare to $220 billion on ones that assist it. www.unep.org/resources/st...

unep.org

State of Finance for Nature 2026

UNEP's State of Finance for Nature 2026: Nature in the Red: Powering the Trillion Dollar Nature Transition Economy tracks global finance flows to Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and reveals that we are f...

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

The world is “entering uncharted waters” with the developing El Niño, expected to be the strongest in 1000 years, warns UN Sec-Gen, as it will be piling heat into an already rapidly warming climate. Next year will “blow apart” the record for the hottest year. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

‘Supersizing before our eyes’: UN warns of record El Niño approaching

Event is likely to be largest in at least 1,000 years and will pile extra heat into a world already in a climate crisis

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Reposted by Geoffrey Lean

NeverFadingWood 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇵🇱🇪🇺 @avantgardening.pl · 07/09/2026

I was always a very ardent fan of the RNLI. Supported them on Lifeboat Day, always visited the lifeboat station or museum if there was one where we were visiting, etc. It would never have occurred to me for a moment in, say, 58 of the last 60 years that that would be a contentious statement.

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Reposted by Geoffrey Lean

LutraLutra @reacctionary.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Swanambulation. The siblings seem to have fallen out...

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The enterprising @theipaper.com invited nine chiefs of England’s notorious water companies to swim in their own bathing waters. Not a single one accepted. Now why do you think that could be? inews.co.uk/news/water-f...

inews.co.uk

We invited 9 water firm bosses to swim in their local bathing spot. Zero said yes

These CEOs earn seven-figure salaries and insist their water quality is 'excellent'. Yet they have suddenly become very hard to reach...

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

There’s a one in four chance that a whole UK city or town will be “catastrophically” deprived of water by a cyberattack or climate change, say leaked official documents. Govt preparing to issue advice to stock up on food and water in a dangerous world. www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

thetimes.com

1 in 4 chance of ‘catastrophic’ water supply failure for 1m Britons

Official documents suggest the danger has risen sharply in a matter of months due to climate change and cyberattacks

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Really excellent mustread by @samfr.bsky.social on the increasingly tortuous, but often effective, arguments being made against action on climate change. samf.substack.com/p/how-to-kil...

samf.substack.com

How to kill a popular policy

Opposing action to tackle climate change is getting trickier.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Five million hectares of desertified Sahel land has been restored by letting the surviving roots of long-felled trees regrow, when tree planting failed. Reviving this “underground forest”, which I first covered 15 years ago, has now spread to 20 countries. www.optimistdaily.com/2026/08/how-...

optimistdaily.com

How Niger restored 5 million hectares without planting a single tree | The Optimist Daily

Niger has restored 5 million hectares of Sahel savanna without planting a tree. The method, discovered in 1983, is now spreading across Africa.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

About time! The Government is finally preparing official advice to Britons to stock up on food and other essentials in the face of increasing food insecurity, cyberspace attacks, pandemics and climate change. Other Western nations issued it years ago. www.ft.com/content/5811...

ft.com

Store water and tinned food to prepare for emergencies, UK citizens to be told

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

New plans to let mayors overrule local authorities on building big housing estates and tower blocks are anti-democratic and the next stage in a mendacious, authoritarian campaign to undermine planning and ruin the Green Belt. My latest for the @dailymail.co.uk. www.dailymail.com/debate/artic...

dailymail.com

GEOFFREY LEAN: Burnham's plan is the opposite of local democracy

Since Andy Burnham walked into No10, he has made much of his determination to devolve power to the regions.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Britain is gathering in its worst harvest in more than 40 years. food prices are already rising and farmers are warning of shortages within months. www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

telegraph.co.uk

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

This is the energy/development solution for millions of Third World villages that grids will never reach. Iraq communities are electrifying themselves through installing decentralised solar power. www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...

aljazeera.com

Iraq’s solar villages show how to build an energy transition that lasts

Decentralised power can give communities the means to sustain themselves rather than wait for change to come from above.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

There’s a huge disconnect on climate between the public and the elite Westminster/Whitehall/media bubble. Vast majority of people rightly link heatwaves with it, but other research has found that two thirds of newspaper articles on them failed to mention it.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Research on the last time the world had high CO2, 56m years ago, has exploded the denier claim that the increased “‘plant food‘ will green the Earth. Fossils show that forests did thicken for a while, but then died, so the result was “browning”, not greening. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

theguardian.com

Fossils show huge carbon emissions harm forests, not ‘green the planet’

Study of 56m-year-old leaves counters claims from Trump administration members of ‘benefits’ of fossil fuel pollution

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Excellent from @channel4news.bsky.social, again ahead of the rest of the media by leading on the climate crisis as the cause of the fires and heat, and calling the Government’s total lack of action to account. @michaelujacobs.bsky.social right on the button as usual.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Biteback. The clean energy lobby, including renewables firms, has funded successful electoral challenges to political opponents. I dislike big money in politics, but guess it’s understandable given the vast amounts fossil fuel interests spend….. www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

politico.com

How solar donors helped take down a Trump-backed Republican

A pro-renewable energy political action committee was behind Rep. Andy Ogles' primary loss Thursday.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

A long-running scandal. When I first exposed polluters in 1971 - naming names by getting round a law that then made that illegal (!) - the Government replied that the UK’s rivers would be clean within five years. just look at them not five, but 55, years later. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

All bodies of water in England polluted with toxic chemicals, official data shows

Environment Agency assessments find just 14.3% of country’s surface waters in good ecological status

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Europe has saved €72 billion by scaling up solar and wind power to replace fossil fuel imports since the invasion of Ukraine, reports the Statistical Review of World Energy. In just four years the two renewables shot up from 19% to 30% of EU power supplies. cleantechnica.com/2026/08/05/e...

cleantechnica.com

European Countries Cut Tens of Billions of Euros of Fossil Fuel Imports from Wind & Solar Power Growth - CleanTechnica

Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week despite the challenges of c...

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Some good news. Coal has just slipped below 50% of China’s electricity generation for the first time: the amount burned is expected to peak in 2030. It’s capacity expected to be exceeded by solar this year. Long way to go but the coal addiction seems to be weakening. www.forbes.com/sites/curren...

forbes.com

China Starts To Kick Its Coal Addiction

This week’s Current Climate newsletter also looks at Waymo’s reliance on imported Chinese EVs and a potential “super cycle” for cleantech investment.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

May seem counterintuitive, but solar parks above fields can actually boost crops, as here. In another case it increased yield by 30% through providing shelter. Sheep and panels can also go well together. Doesn’t apply universally, of course, but still good news. www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...

canarymedia.com

Mixing solar power and agriculture: A blueberry farm does a test run

A farmer in Maine has teamed up with a solar developer and university researchers to find out how his berries fare when partially shaded by solar panels.

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Reposted by Geoffrey Lean

Nahel Belgherze @wxnb.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Bordeaux, France, has now recorded more days above 40°C in 2026 alone than during the entire 105-year period from 1920 (when observations began) to 2025. This is deeply shocking.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

A review of over 500 studies has established that climate change is “reshaping” plankton communities in uk seas. Worrying since these form the very base of the marine food web, so there are potentially serious impacts on sea life and fisheries. oceanographicmagazine.com/news/from-pl...

oceanographicmagazine.com

From plankton to plate: Changing UK seas are shifting food webs - Oceanographic

UK report documents accelerating climate-driven shifts in plankton communities - with consequences for food webs, fisheries, and carbon.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Big oil is increasingly pulling out of the North Sea.This suggests that the environmentalists’ description of a fast diminishing field is much truer than Trump‘s assertion (influencing Burnham) that it is a huge resource companies are itching to exploit. oilprice.com/Latest-Energ...

oilprice.com

BP Puts Its North Sea Oil Business Up for Sale | OilPrice.com

BP has formally launched the sale of its UK North Sea business as it redirects capital toward higher-return oil and gas projects around the world.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

As birth rates fall, more than 100 English schools have had to close, disturbing children and communities. How long will it be, as Western societies continue to age, before they start competing to attract, rather than repel, young immigrants? theconversation.com/falling-birt...

theconversation.com

Falling birth rates mean schools are closing – affecting whole communities

Schools provide a link between generations in a local area.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Extraordinary. Research concludes that the impact of climate change on vegetation in the tropics - home to over half of the world’s species - in the next 24 years will be the same as has occurred naturally over the last 3.3 million years. theconversation.com/impact-of-cl...

theconversation.com

Impact of climate change may be equivalent to 3.3 million years of transformations in tropical vegetation

Changes that took millions of years can now happen in a matter of decades, and this accelerated rythm can be destructive, with dangerous consequences for the planet

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Madness. Trump has killed or cut back 216 clean energy projects in the last 18 months, cisting the US ecinomyb$90 billion, and sacrificing the creation of 470,00 new jobs. www.ecoportal.net/uk/216-clean...

ecoportal.net

More than 200 US clean energy projects have been canceled or downsized, and the reason is not cheap panels but a $68 billion mix of grid gridlock and a closing tax window

Somewhere in the American heartland sits a wide, flat field.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

You’d think the ’ships of the desert’ could cope with global warming. But no. Nearly half of Somalia’s camel-owning households have lost at least one to drought, research finds. In parts of the north of the country this rises to almost three-quarters. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Africa's camels are dying from extreme heat as temperatures soar

Herders and experts tell the BBC how Africa's camels are suffering because of extreme heat.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Water companies have discharged over 117,000 hours of #sewage from 1165 overflows near popular #bathing beaches so far this summer, reports @sascampaigns.bsky.social. Yet, it adds, the public is often told that the water at them is “excellent”. www.ft.com/content/1fd5...

ft.com

Sewage discharges flout guidance near 65 beaches in England since May

Overflows at bathing sites come as tourists flock to coastal areas for summer holidays

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Amazing Bhutan, the country that absorbs over ten times as much carbon as it emits, and measures its economy by Gross National Happiness. Forty years ago I was privileged to be one of the first western journalists to tour it, in one of the highlights of my career. spacedaily.com/m-almost-eve...

spacedaily.com

Almost every nation pumps more carbon into the air than it removes, but one small Himalayan kingdom does the exact reverse: Bhutan absorbs more carbon than it emits, a rare carbon-negative country tha...

While the world chases net-zero pledges, Bhutan achieved carbon negativity through an unconventional measure of progress that treats forests as seriously as factories.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Nine million tonnes of grain have so far been lost across Europe in the drought. France‘s maize harvest lowest in 50 years. Romanian farmers have lost over a million acres of crops. 20,000 people dead, including 2200 in UK. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Climate crisis-driven heat ‘sucking soils dry’ as extreme drought hits Europe

Analysis shows how heatwaves are making atmosphere thirstier, damaging water supplies, food production and power generation

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

A new worry from the Iran war. Scientists warn that the hulls of 1500+ ships trapped for months by the closure of the Straits of Hormuz will be gathering life that they could spread worldwide when they open , causing a “massive” invasive species crisis. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/science/thou...

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Thousands of idle ships trapped near the Strait of Hormuz could become floating nurseries for invasive marine species and spread them worldwide when trade resumes

Having escalated into open hostilities on February 28, 2026, the current United States and Iran war has been going on for nearly five months. In this period, the Strait of Hormuz, the only open-ocean ...

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Secret documents suggest that almost 90% of 300,000 U.K. sewage spills over the last two years may nave been illegal, but gone unpunished. The new ministers must finally get a grip. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Secret court documents reveal potential scale of illegal sewage spilling

The new analysis from a prominent water campaigner emerged after secret court documents were leaked.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Rivers are drying up across Europe as the drought goes on. The Loire is just a dry bed in places. The Rhine is only a meter deep at a critical gauge. The Danube, says an official Roumanian agency, is at its lowest for 30 years.The Elbe and Po also in trouble. www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-chan...

downtoearth.org.in

Rhine, Danube, Elbe, Loire. Some of Europe’s biggest rivers are going dry this summer

Rivers across the European continent, including some of its most important waterways, are drying up as an unrelenting heatwave refuses to go away.The Danube, Rh

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

disappointing that @edmilibandmp.bsky.social isn’t chancellor. But he can still have a big impact on climate internationally as foreign secretary, as some predecessors did. And appointing @miattafahnbulleh.bsky.social to his old job is very good news. Much depends on @andyburnham.bsky.social.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Net zero denial gone madder than ever. In the midst of its massive heatwave, the Trump administration has scrapped over 1600 pages on how to save energy, and thus cut bills, from its Department of Energy website. Who is it serving, the people or the utilities? www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

theguardian.com

Over 1,600 energy department webpages on utility bill savings removed as US temperatures soar

Guardian analysis found the removals coincided with the Trump administration’s push to weaken efficiency rules

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Analysis of nearly 2,500 reports in the UK’s nine main national daily publications found that almost three quarters of them failed to mention climate change and less than one in 20 referred to net zero. Shamefully bad journalism, apart from anything else. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Most UK media reports on June heatwave failed to mention climate crisis

Exclusive: Analysis of nearly 2,500 articles finds almost three-quarters made no reference to global heating

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

As if the increasingly scorching heat were not enough. Warming waters from climate change have brought a plague of silver-cheeked toadfish - the second most poisonous vertebrate on Earth, with a bite that can crunch through bone - to the Med’s bathing waters. www.thetimes.com/world/europe...

thetimes.com

Toxic pufferfish that can bite through bone lurks in Mediterranean

Floating barriers are being put up to protect bathers from the species of pufferfish that can bite through a finger

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

If the US dramatically changed course and achieved net zero by 2050, it could save the lives of 33,000 of its people every year, new research suggests. That would mainly be the result of cutting the air pollution caused by burning fossil fuels. phys.org/news/2026-07...

phys.org

Cutting emissions more, removing carbon less could save 33,000 U.S. lives yearly

Published in Nature Climate Change, new research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison finds that reaching net-zero emissions by midcentury would substantially improve public health in the United S...

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Encouraging, if we act. The expected disruption of the Gulf Stream - giving the U.K. the climate of Labrador and causing devastation worldwide - could be avoided if we cut emissions now, concludes new research. Will governments listen? www.newscientist.com/article/2532...

newscientist.com

Slowdown of AMOC ocean current may be gradual and reversible

Scientists worry that a surge of meltwater from Greenland could irreversibly collapse the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, but new modelling suggests the weakening of the current could be ...

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

More than a million people a year now die because of antibiotic resistance. A huge failure of the market - profit-obsessed companies don’t want to develop drugs only used for short periods - and of governments refusing to take action. It will get worse. www.chemistryworld.com/news/metabol...

chemistryworld.com

Metabolised antibiotics can drive antimicrobial resistance just as much as their parent compounds

Studies on wastewater show that antibiotic transformation products may play an underappreciated role in driving antimicrobial resistance

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Every £1 of public money invested in net zero delivers between £2.20 and £4..10 in return, reports top economist @mazzucatom.bsky.social im this wide ranging article. Drawn from official figures, this gives the lie to all those claims about it’s vast cost of. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.com

Labour has abandoned the missions that brought it to power. Here's how Burnham could revive them. | Mariana Mazzucato

With a new prime minister incoming, Labour faces a fundamental question about its economic vision, says economics professor Mariana Mazzucato

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Some deniers cite the 1976 heatwavE as proof that the climate is not changing. These scientists looked into it, and have concluded that the present one is far worse, thanks to global heating. “We are living in a very different climate to 50 years ago”. theconversation.com/we-recreated...

theconversation.com

We recreated the legendary heatwave summer of 1976 in today’s climate – here’s what we found

For 15 consecutive days, temperatures were over 32°C. Today, heatwaves are 3°C or 4°C hotter.

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

This is crazy. Putting solar panels over car parks is a win-win-win, producing clean energy, shading the cars, and protecting the countryside. France requires it. But the U.K. government has inexplicably rejected it. eastangliabylines.co.uk/environment/...

eastangliabylines.co.uk

As Britain bakes, ministers quietly park plans for solar carports

Ministers have quietly shelved plans that could have transformed Britain's biggest car parks into shaded power stations

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Some 1.6 million children, including 700,000 babies, are at serious risk, because of living in overheated homes in increasing heatwaves, expert analysis has concluded. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

theguardian.com

One in six babies in England live in overheated homes – analysis

More than 70,000 babies living in hot homes as climate crisis drives record temperatures

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Sceptics about climate change often point out that many more people die of cold than heat.They are right, for now. But research predicts that rising temperatures will kill more people from heat than they save from the cold, making it the greater cause of death. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Dangerous temperatures could kill 50% more Europeans by 2100, study finds

Net increase of 80,000 deaths a year projected in hottest scenario, with milder winters failing to redress balance

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Geoffrey Lean @geofflean.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Climate change sceptics often say that cold kills many more than heat. They are right, for now. But research shows that rising temperatures kill more than they save, so that heat becomes the greater cause of death in a warmer world. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Dangerous temperatures could kill 50% more Europeans by 2100, study finds

Net increase of 80,000 deaths a year projected in hottest scenario, with milder winters failing to redress balance

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