Deforestation in Tropics Causes Deaths due to Heat

Recent studies have noted the lethal consequences of tropical deforestation that is increasing local temperatures and causing the premature deaths of thousands of people per year. Close to 28,000 individuals died annually between 2001 and 2020 due to heat that was directly related to the loss of forests.

Deforestation and On-site Warming.

• Deforestation in forests increased land surface temperatures on average by 0.27degC and in hotspots by as much as 0.7degC.
• South Asia experienced the largest rise by more than 0.72degC with Central and South America coming in second (0.34degC) and third (0.10degC).
• The worst warming could be found in regions such as the southern Amazon, Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Scale of Impact

• There are 345 million individuals within the warming regions caused by deforestation.
• There were 33 million experiencing temperature increases beyond 1degC and 2.6 million experiencing increases beyond 3degC.
• The highest risks are encountered in the densely populated areas of South-east Asia, tropical Africa, and Central and South America.

Health Consequences

• Deforestation triggers heat that results in 28,330 unnecessary deaths/year.
• The largest number of deaths is recorded in south-east Asia, particularly in Indonesia.
• The number of deaths in tropical Africa is almost 9,900/year.
• Heat waves also decrease labour productivity: 2.8 million outside workers lost their safe working conditions in the period between 2003 and 2018.

Environmental Impact

• Between 2014-2023, tropical deforestation contributes to 1.7 gigatonnes of CO2/year (15% of total human-made emissions).
• The researchers caution that real mortality might be more, since larger climate effects were not factored.

Regional Hotspots

Deforestation centers are found in:

• Deforestation at Amazon.
• Central America (Guatemala, Nicaragua)
• West Africa (Ivory Coast, Ghana)
• Central and Eastern Africa (DR Congo).
• South-east Asia (Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia).

The results emphasize that the preservation of tropical forests should not be seen as an isolated issue of climate stability but also of the protection of millions of human lives in areas at risk.