Member-only story
Excessive Death
What do you mean by too many dead people?
A story published 22/11/2023, in Portuguese newspaper drew attention to the number of deaths caused by the 2022 heatwave in Europe. I translate the headline to you:
“Heat may have caused 70,000 excess deaths in Europe in 2022”
The news item referred to a study published in the , pointing out that the 2022 heatwave was responsible for 70,000 excess deaths in Europe.
I’m essentially a questioner, so I have to confess that I wondered about this question:
What, then, is an acceptable, balanced and expected number of deaths?
It’s a disturbing question, because to answer it we need to talk about the issues surrounding death.
I think that the only entity that likes and considers itself an expert and that likes to be talked about is Death itself, being the exclusive holder of the knowledge necessary to decide who dies, by what method and at what time.
Death, apart from other whims, also likes surprises. That’s why people say that ‘you never know when it’s coming’. Sometimes it likes to play tricks that humans call “death scares”.
