Heatwaves Likely To Emerge As Australia's Worst Disasters In Next Decades

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MORE Australians will die in heatwaves than from all other natural disasters put together in the coming decades because of global warming, an international report has warned. About 500 Queenslanders alone would die in a single two-week heatwave, based on data contained in a study released yesterday by Harvard Medical School in the US.

Australia also faced a surge in catastrophic bushfires, cyclones, asthma cases and the death of large sections of the Great Barrier Reef, the study concluded.

It said the 2003 French heatwave resulted in a 55 per cent jump in the average numbers of deaths, compared with the 10 to 20 per cent jump usually experienced in heatwaves in countries similar to Australia.

However, the report said that could rise sharply in future because of Australia's ageing population and an increase in air pollution, which was known to exacerbate the health impacts of heatwaves. "Australia is also experiencing more hot days, with predictions that the number of summer days over 35C in Sydney will increase from the current two days to 11 days by 2070," it reported.

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http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17125215-2,00.html