Climate claims

I note the (sorry!) heated climate debate in Wokingham Today.

I attended two recent “Climate Emergency” events at Wokingham Library, the latest hosted by Cllr Sarah Kerr on Tuesday, December 12.

She repeated the extraordinary his paper (“Don’t Deny the Climate Emergency”, February 23).

In her letter, Cllr Kerr accused those sceptical of the “Climate Catastrophe” of ignoring the deaths caused by global warming. I quote: [Climate change skeptics] “should try telling that to those who lost loved ones during the extreme heatwave last year (2022). ONS data shows that the number of people who died was 6.2% higher than normal at this time of year, compared to the five-year average”.

At the event, I asked her to show the audience the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website that provides the official figures.

Two official graphs from the ONS show excess deaths in 2022. Yes, excess deaths were higher than the five-year average (2020 is excluded from this average because of the covid spike; therefore the five years are defined as 2016-19 and 2021).

Since late April 2022, excess deaths were consistently running between about 500 and 1,000 per week. You will note that deaths were below average during the winter, but as the ONS explain the average is skewed upwards by the covid spike in early 2021.

As the chart clearly shows, there was no spike in excess deaths during the summer, with the level of excess deaths then being little different to the months before or afterwards.

During July and August (the “extreme heatwave”) excess deaths averaged 717 per week. In comparison, excess deaths since week ending April 29, when they started to spike, have averaged 679. During October they hit 906 per week.,

The excess deaths are clearly part of a much larger problem, and appear to have nothing to do with the climate. You can find the graphs on the ONS website at: www.ons.gov. uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/ birthsdeathsandmarriages/ deaths/bulletins/deathsregistered weeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/ weekending21october2022