Death from heat in cold climates

 Extreme heat has been in the headlines in areas that typically do not suffer from heat, including northern parts of British Columbia in Canada, and Washington state in the US. The Guardian reports:

"More than 31 million people across the US west and south-west are bracing for a brutal heatwave that could bring triple-digit temperatures this weekend, with authorities warning that records could be broken in many regions of California and Nevada." (SOURCE)

The problem is serious: 

"More than 5 million people die each year globally because of excessively hot or cold conditions, a 20-year study has found – and heat-related deaths are on the rise." (SOURCE)

One of the possible causes of this extreme heat could be changes in the jet stream:

"Experts at the Potsdam Institute and elsewhere believe the rapid heating in the Arctic and decline of sea ice is making the jet stream wiggle in large, meandering patterns, so-called Rossby resonance waves, trapping high- and low-pressure weather systems in one location for a longer time." (SOURCE)

At present, there is no certainty that this or other theories are necessarily the cause of recent deaths from heat, but the recent heat crisis in these areas is at the least an indication of serious planetary problems due to the climate crisis. Typically people say that nothing can be done about the weather, and that one can only complain about it, but this attitude is no longer true. There is substantial evidence that human actions have caused the planet to warm significantly, and it is our responsibility to do what we can to reduce the causes of global warming in order to protect God's creation.

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