S4 E25 - COLD Weather Kills, but Extreme Heat Gets the Money

The Controversy of Heat vs. Cold: Debunking Fake News on Weather Deaths

In this episode we critically analyze the claim that extreme heat is America's deadliest weather threat. The script argues that recent narratives prioritizing heat dangers over cold are politically manipulated, citing decades of studies and CDC data showing cold weather as a far more significant killer. Through a discussion on human adaptation, technology, and historical evidence, the episode challenges the validity of updated definitions and statistics regarding heat deaths. It highlights a broader pattern of fear-driven misinformation in media and politics, urging viewers to question and verify scientific claims.

00:00 Introduction: The Fake News on Weather
02:13 Debunking the Heat Death Myth
03:00 The Science Behind Cold vs. Heat
05:04 Human Adaptation to Heat
06:26 Technological Adaptations to Cold
09:43 The Bigger Picture: Manipulation of Data
12:17 Conclusion: The Real Threat of Cold

Commentary on trending issues brought to you with a moderate perspective.

Transcript

The Tenth Man: 0:11

The fake news now says the most dangerous weather is hot weather. After years of saying the exact opposite, they're now telling a lie and we're letting them get away with it. Today on the 10th, man, they say heat is now the deadliest weather threat in America. Don't worry about fentanyl or homicide. Don't worry about freezing to death in a Chicago alley in February. Nope, just good old sunshine. Apparently we're all one degree away from death according to sources like A, B, C News who say this/ Across the country, extreme heat causes more deaths each year than any other weather event. across the country, extreme heat causes more deaths each year than any other weather event. Wow. Thank you. Scientists at a B, C. Well, somewhere out there, a snowstorm just rolled its eyes while it quietly killed 10 people. But sure, let's all panic over a sweaty afternoon in Phoenix. Let me ask you something. If he is so deadly, why is every poor culture on earth living in it? Why do people retire to Florida and not from it? And why don't we even have a phrase like he heated to death. We do have, he froze to death. It's the exact dramatical opposite. Well, the reason we don't is because it's cold that kills and heat doesn't. Coal will kill you slowly or instantly, quietly, and most important cold will kill you all by itself. Because people ostensibly do die of heat, but it always takes a little bit of effort and a few bad decisions. So today, once again, we're going to dismantle this lie, he said weirdly, because why do we have to, why is it that the news spreads lies like this? Shouldn't they be the ones. Telling the truth and debunking the lies, but these lies come out again and again and we just accept them. So we'll put it to rest. We'll talk biology, climate, politics, and the bigger pattern of deception that it all fits into. So let's go. The whole idea that heat is deadlier than cold. It's not just false, it's insultingly false. For decades, studies have shown that cold kills more people than the heat does, and by wide margin. In fact, if there's such a thing as climate change and global warming, it's going to save lives five to 10,000 a year just in the United States. Because one major international study examined 74 million deaths in 13 countries, and it found that the cold caused not just more deaths, it caused 20 times as many deaths as heat does. And the Centers for Disease Control CDC data for over a decade showed the same thing. Until one day the narrative needed to have a rewrite. And that's, that's your CD, C. So what changed all of a sudden did the science? Well, our understanding of science might change, but the science does not. So what changed was the politics. Sometime around 2015 to 2021, we watched a slow narrative shift. Government agencies redefined what counted as a heat death. Hmm, sound familiar, and media outlets started repeating a new sound bite. Heat is the deadliest weather phenomenon, but the problem is it's simply not true. You know, science and biology, those are not political and they can pretend they are all they want, but the fact is it just can't be true that heat is more deadly. And that simple science and simple biology. And why? Well, it's because we humans are heat adapted creatures. We're adapted to live where it's hot. Not the opposite. We evolved or were created. Take your pick in the heat. Our earliest ancestors, according to science, they were discovered in Africa by the leaky, that original, what was her name? Was it Judy? I forgot her name. But she was discovered in Eastern Africa, not Norway, not Finland. And then how about this? What's the definition of a mammal is a creature with hair, isn't it? But among all the mammals, we are the ones who are virtually hairless. Virtually hairless mammals are very few. It's us and the elephants. Name another one. I'm sure there's another one. I can't think of one though. There's no elephants in Norway either. And we're one of the very few animals on earth that sweat. Sometimes people talk about animals that don't sweat as if they're exceptions. No, we are the exception. We're the exception because we were not created for the cold, and we learned to survive. Winter learned. And it wasn't through evolution, it was through technology. Have you ever thought about that? The first human invention wasn't the wheel or the spear. It was fire. The artificial creation of heat, that's a huge thing that we take for granted, and it tells you everything because surviving in the cold. It requires an external solution. Now think about these. We have fire, fuel, shelter, insulation, clothing, a form of insulation. All of those are inventions. They're all technology, and their technology is so old we forget that it's technology. We think our clothes are to express ourselves. Clothing is to keep us warm because we decided to move to where it's cold. And the solution to adapting to heat, well, you just stop working in the daytime, you can sit down, you can pour water on your head, and you didn't have to invent the water. You just get water that exists and pour on your head. You don't need air conditioning to survive the heat. That technology is very recent. All you need is a hose, a sponge, or a bottle of water. The poorest people in the world, the ones who have no electricity, let alone air conditioning, they live in hot climates, not cold ones, and they're not dying on mass. But you take a poor person in a cold climate and remove their source of heat, they're gone. Now, I think we have to be a little bit blunt here. The people who die in the heat are usually doing something dumb. They'll go out of their way to move to Arizona, live in a trailer. They don't fix the AC or they shut it off to save money, or they decide to go mow the lawn at 2:00 PM. Or they're trying to work construction in 105 degree heat. And even then they can stop, you know, the Apache and the Navajo who lived there, they weren't that dumb. All you gotta do is stop, take a break, then you can cool down and you can live. And that's where the cold is entirely different, the cold, the real killer, because cold kills people who are doing nothing wrong. All you have to do is sit too long in an unheated house or the elderly people who lose power during a winter storm.'cause cold doesn't require you to exert yourself to do something dumb cold will just show up, and if you're unprepared, you're dead. You see, this is the real science. And actually it isn't even science, is it? It's just common sense. It's what we could all observe without ever studying what we call science I. And if nobody had ever told you different, you never would've thought anything else. Which brings us to the bigger picture. Because this heat death hype, the idea that hot weather kills people more than cold. It's not just an isolated fib, it's part of a pattern that we've seen before. Oh, yeah. We saw a lot of it. How about COVI deaths? Remember when anyone who died with COVID was counted as dying of COVID? I, it's the exact same thing over again, isn't it? Cause of death. So back then it didn't matter if it was a motorcycle crash. I think we all knew somebody like this, didn't we? Or late stage cancer, if they found COVID in the person, it became a COVID death. It went into the tally. And what did that do? Well, it inflated the COVID numbers, which in turn justified lockdowns, and it drove fear. Oh, they love fear, don't they? And this kept the grants flowing the money. And there you go. That's what it always is, isn't it? Follow the money. Now they're just doing the same thing with heat. You die of heart failure in in July. It's a heat death. You were dehydrated and you fell a heat death. You fainted in a parking lot when there was a warm breeze and got run over by a bus. Well call the EPA. It's another heat death. Same formula. It's just a different cause. Different cause, but the same manipulation of data and these lies are all over. The other one is gun deaths in kids. We're told that guns are the number one killer of children. Absolutely false. It's absolutely false. Meanwhile, toddlers are drowning in pools. There is an epidemic of that, and young adults are overdosing on fentanyl. There's an epidemic of that, but the headlines don't say the truth. It doesn't tell us the things we should be looking out for because the truth doesn't move policy, but fear does. Are you starting to see a pattern? How about all these terms that really have no meaning anymore? Humanitarian crisis, extreme weather. Just meaningless terms anymore because they redefine reality to match their politics. And anyone who pushes back. Well, you're now the science denier, So we have to harp on this because it's a blatant lie that they're getting away with, and it's not just about heat or cold, it's about trust. If they'll lie to you about what weather kills people, they'll lie to you about anything. They'll scare you into compliance, into handing over control of your car, your thermostat, your kitchen stove. And it's all to protect you from a heat wave that mostly kills people who ignore common sense. And then when the power grid fails during a January ice storm, don't expect a retraction. So no heat isn't the deadliest weather threat. It's just the most politically convenient one. Cold kills more people as it has for centuries. But heat gets the headlines because heat gets the money. And the next time they tell you the science is settled, check who paid for it. This is the tens man. And if you're tired of fake statistics, manipulated headlines and fear-based policy, share this episode. Because truth doesn't trend, you have to push it.