No, Yahoo News, ‘Extreme Heat’ Isn’t Accelerating Aging—And It’s Not Getting Worse

Among other media outlets, Yahoo News recently posted an article, “Extreme heat may speed up aging in older adults, USC study says,” published as a video story at CBS News Boston, claiming that “extreme heat may speed aging and increase the risk of disease.” This is false and misleading. While prolonged exposure to harsh environmental conditions can affect health, the claim that “extreme heat” is an increasing and worsening threat due to climate change is not supported by historical data. In fact, evidence suggests that extreme heat waves in the United States are not becoming more frequent or severe, and cold weather remains a far greater threat to human health.

The story is based on a University of Southern California (USC) press release titled; Study: Extreme Heat May Speed Up Aging in Older Adults

In the press release, the author states, “Scientists are growing increasingly concerned about the long-term health effects of climate change, with new research suggesting extreme heat could speed up aging and lead to a host of other medical issues.” This type of speculative language is common in climate alarmist narratives—using vague phrases like “growing concern” and “could” rather than providing solid, demonstrable evidence.

In the published study at Science Advances, the study authors claim to be able to detect age enhancing DNA changes from blood tests done on older populations. The basis of their study is this:

The researchers used mathematical tools called epigenetic clocks to analyze methylation patterns and estimate biological ages at each time point. They then compared participants’ changes in biological age to their location’s heat index history and number of heat days reported by the National Weather Service from 2010 to 2016.

They provide this map of the United States showing areas of heat risk days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Unsurprisingly, that map looks like a normal high temperature distribution for summer in the United States, with southern latitudes having the highest number of days above 90°F. That’s not news.

However, data from Climate at a Glance shows that heat waves in the U.S. were far more severe in the 1930s, particularly during the Dust Bowl years, than anything we see today. NOAA’s temperature records confirm that the highest recorded temperatures and longest-lasting heat waves occurred nearly a century ago. If “extreme heat” were truly an escalating crisis, we would see a consistent upward trend in heat wave frequency and intensity, but that is simply not the case.

The story and the study completely ignore this and other factors, such as the Urban Heat Island effect, which has grown over the last several decades as city populations increase. Note the similarity of the Figure 1 map above with the Figure 2 map below.

Note that much of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Arizona, and Southern California have cities with strong UHI signatures, matching the same areas of the map provided by the study. UHI is not a product of climate change, but rather a propensity for increasing infrastructure to retain heat, and contribute to higher temperatures.

Furthermore, the study wrongly assumes that increased temperatures are the only reason for these aging changes in the DNA of people they studied. It is well known that several environmental and personal factors contribute to accelerating aging, including exposure to pollutants, UV radiation, diet, physical activity, poor sleep quality, poor air quality, and lifestyle-related stressors such as drinking alcohol, obesity, and smoking. The study doesn’t take any of these into account, leading to a conclusion that cannot be verified as being only temperature related.

Finally, the study only used data from 2010 to 2016. That short period data does not even come close to the 30 year requirement for a climate data set, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization. Thus, short-term influences can be at work here rather than long-term climate change. For example, a strong El Niño event in 2015 and 2016 significantly increased temperatures in the United States. The El Niño of 2015-16 was among the strongest El Niño events observed since 1950, and thus added to the higher temperatures people experienced in the United States. In 2015, More than 4,000 daily record highs were set across the country, and in 2016 The U.S. experienced 5,350 daily record high temperatures according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A search of the study shows the authors completely ignore the El Niño event in 2015 and 2016 and the effect it had on high temperatures, wrongly attributing it to climate change. That is simply shoddy science by the researchers that enabled their false conclusion.

While researchers and media outlets like to focus on heat-related health risks, they consistently ignore the well-documented dangers of cold weather. A study published in The Lancet found that cold-related deaths vastly outnumber heat-related deaths worldwide, by nearly a 10-to-1 margin. Cold temperatures exacerbate cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, leading to significantly higher mortality rates in winter than during heat waves. In the U.S., extreme cold events, winter storms, and power outages caused by “green” energy policies restricting reliable fossil fuels pose a greater risk to public health than summer heat. But instead of addressing the real danger—how restrictive climate policies make heating more expensive—media outlets continue their fixation on “extreme heat” as an existential threat.

This type of reporting is not about science; it’s about pushing a climate crisis narrative. Instead of examining long-term historical data and other factors, the media selectively highlights flawed short-term studies and worst-case scenarios to create climate alarm. This article is just another example of that trend—promoting fear without looking at the full picture. If the media were truly concerned about public health, they would focus on the deadly impact of cold weather and the policies that make energy more expensive, rather than pushing dubious claims about heat waves “accelerating aging.”