Has a warmer climate since the Little Ice Age led to poorer health?

No, possibly the opposite

English translation of my reader post in The Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association. An extended Norwegian version was published in Subjekt and on Substack.

Death from natural disasters decreased from 1900 to 1980 and has remained unchanged. In 2022, world food production was 56% higher than in 2000, and since 1990, malaria incidence has been roughly unchanged. The fact that some young people have climate-related anxiety should not be denied, but it is probably caused by the school and the media, not climate change itself.

In India and European cities, cold takes far more lives than heat, and the claim that heat waves in the summer of 2022 took 62,000 lives in Europe is doubtful. Firstly, one should expect increased mortality among the socially vulnerable and the elderly, but in England, where approximately 2,900 reportedly died from the heat, figures do not show that. Iceland's excess mortality was among Europe's highest in July, and hardly because of heat. In the same period, excess mortality was also significant in countries in the southern hemisphere. Finally, Europe had far higher seasonally adjusted excess mortality the following winter despite being abnormally mild.

Altogether, climate change has not led to poorer health; conversely, one can argue that increased food production and fewer cold-related deaths are positive outcomes. Climate models do, however, point to future challenges, but since they use uncertain and complex assumptions, empirical evidence must be given primary weight. History has also taught us that projections from climate models are not always accurate.