2025 saw the “lowest death rate from extreme weather in history.” Roger Pielke “notes that this good news is not a fluke,” but “part of a much longer-term trend” in “a world that has grown much wealthier and thus far better equipped to protect people when, inevitably, extreme events do occur.'” The death rate from extreme weather events is 99.8% lower than it was in 1960.
In 2025, there were only “about 4,500 deaths related to extreme weather events,” despite the “large loss of life related to flooding in South and Southeast Asia, associated with Cyclones Senyar and Ditwah.”
Pielke adds:
the death rate from extreme weather events is the lowest ever at less than 0.8 deaths per 1,000,000 people….Only 2018 and 2015 are close.
To put the death rate into perspective, consider that:
- in 1960 it was >320 per 1,000,000;
- in 1970, >80;
- in 1980, ~3;
- in 1990, ~1.3;
Since 2000, six years have occurred with <1.0 deaths per 1,000,000 people, all since 2014….This is an incredible story of human ingenuity and progress.
To be sure, there is some luck involved as large losses of life are still possible — For instance, 2008 saw almost 150,000 deaths and a death rate of ~21 per 1,000,000.
Most of the world’s forests are expanding. Reforestation is offsetting the effects of global warming in parts of the U.S.
The amount of vegetation on the Earth has increased for each of the last 30 years.
China’s forests have grown by about 234,000 square miles over the last 30 years, an area the size of Ukraine. The European Union has added an area the size of Cambodia to its woodlands.
Reforestation has recently accelerated in England.
