Bob Ward’s Fake Claims Of Heatwave Deaths
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
More garbage from the Telegraph:
To attempt to compare the UK climate with the Pacific Northwest is not only absurd, but highly irresponsible. The latter frequently sees temperatures well over 100F, for the simple reason of its close proximity to the hot deserts of Nevada.
Bob Ward, of course, is not an “expert”, as the Telegraph claim, but the PR man for the Grantham Foundation, whose sole purpose is the promulgation of climate alarmism.
But what about these thousands of heat related deaths in 2019 (not last summer as Ward or the Telegraph have incompetently claimed)?
As Ward certainly knows, it is winter, and not summer, when deaths peak:
And 2019 was no exception. As is always the case, it was summer which recorded the fewest deaths.
If we compare the summer of 2019 with recent summers, we see that there were fewer deaths than in 2016 and 2017, when summer temperatures were below average and there were no notable heatwaves.
Also note that the very hot summer of 2018 recorded fewer deaths than those two years:
It is difficult to make longer term comparisons of actual deaths, because the number of deaths each year tends to rise as the population gets older. This is why the ONS use Age Standardised Mortality Rates for long term comparisons, as they explain:
Age-standardised mortality rates (ASMRs) allow for differences in the age structure of populations and therefore allow valid comparisons to be made between geographic areas, over time and between sexes.
The best way to compare summer deaths is to calculate the percentage of annual deaths. When we do this, we find that death rates in both 2018 and 2019 were well below most other years since 2011:
In short, Ward’s claims are utterly fake. Shame on the Telegraph for printing this rubbish.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
How many of those deaths happened to people in new build houses which easily get too hot in summer?
Another excellent, straight-forward no-frills analysis of the nonsense that is promulgated in the UK media. Thanks again.
Those of us old enough to remember pre-climate alarmist days will recall headlines such as
“Phew-what a scorcher”! so such days currently are not at all new, nor are they evidence of AGW but what were atmospheric pCO2 values in the 50s, before the Bob Wards were here to terrify us all?
This morning I’ve received a warning from the Met. Office of ‘extreme heat’ in our area (Cornwall) over the next 3 days. Tomorrow is forecast as the most severe with a lunch time expected temperature of 25*C. Such nonsense won’t fool those of us of a certain age but youngsters are insidiously being led to believe that perfectly ordinary weather is highly unusual or even unprecedented and is a direct result of man made climate change. Stitch up comes to mind.
When they can’t find any real weather extremes, climate headline chasers resort to fake ones.
I seem to remember Christopher Booker commenting about Bob Ward who would complain about C. B’s articles and how they were false, misrepresentation and inaccurate. I believe that not one of Bob Ward’s complaints was ever upheld. Christopher booker said that Bob Ward was trying to shut him down as he would question the whole AGW theory. The tactics used against Christopher Booker seemed to involve attempting to tie him up in lugubrious knots. Is there similar nonsense here.
They probably count the deaths of anyone dying within 30 days of a 30 Deg C temperature.
More about heat waves
(In passing, nice one, Beagle)
I’d lay odds that if you (Paul) were to put this article in the form of a letter to the editor it would die a death on his spike. I’ve lost track of the letters I have had spiked – this year alone.
Expert eh? Next time I am running a temperature with a bit of a headache I may consult a medical doctor – not someone with a geology BSc degree.
I noticed there was some drivel from Ward in today’s Mail.
After 70 years, how can you call them ‘excess’ winter deaths?
A slight correction –
Actually, here in the heart of the Pacific North West (Seattle, Washington state) we are not close to Nevada – our neighbours are Oregon to the south, Idaho to the east and Canada to the north. The most populous western part of Washington state closer to the Pacific rarely has summer temperatures reaching 100ª — apart from this year’s extreme anomaly, which allegedly caused the deaths of 91 people (including an elderly neighbour). However, climate is quite different in the eastern half of WA, on the other side of the Cascades, much drier and with greater temperature extremes, winter and summer.
It’s a naive analysis anyway
The NHS for medical purposes uses the tally of Life
of counting life days lost rather than raw deaths
cos it really does make a difference if the person is already almost dead of cancer or a healthy small child.
Similarly I reckon the same needs to be done for counting hot days
Is there a way of calculating the number of heat watts thrown down over 24 hours
… Of course it’s not really hot days that kill, but rather poor procedures and tech.
If you take it easy in the sun and places have the right cooling everyone can survive.
Various UK governments have a dismal record of preventing the deaths of old(er) people during the winter. It’s as if UK goverments are generally incompetent.