Tropical deforestation is associated with considerable heat-related mortality

This paper presents a pan-tropical analysis of how tropical deforestation between 2001 and 2020 has contributed to population-weighted warming and the resulting burden of heat-related mortality.

The findings suggest that warming from tropical deforestation impacts large numbers of people and could result in a substantial health burden. We estimate that 345 million people were exposed to local warming from forest loss during 2001-2020. We estimate this warming is associated with an annual heat-related mortality burden of 28,330 (95% CI: 23,610-33,560), equivalent to 39% of the total heat-related mortality (from global climate change and deforestation combined) over locations of forest loss