Europe's heat and fire crisis and the new fossil-fuel surge from artificial intelligence

作者：Sanjay Rajagopalan, T Münzel, Antonio Gasparrini · 发表于：European Heart Journal · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1093/eurheartj/ehag078 · 被引用次数：1 · 研究领域：Global Energy and Sustainability Research、COVID-19 impact on air quality、Integrated Energy Systems Optimization

Europe is now the fastest-warming continent, with 2024 its hottest year on record.1,2 Recent summers have been devastating, with heat contributing to an estimated 61 700 deaths in 2022 and 47 000 in 2023, with roughly half of all heat- and pollution-related mortality reflecting cardiorespiratory causes.3,4 Public-health agencies note that heat already accounts for >95% of climate- and weather-related deaths in Europe, a risk amplified by ageing populations and intensifying urban heat.5 Dry conditions are also fuelling more frequent and severe landscape fires with >440 000 hectares having burnt in Europe this year, over twice the area in 2024 (189 000 hectares).6 Collectively, these events are driving surges in air pollution and heat-triggered spikes in ischaemic events, heart-failure decompensation, dehydration-related acute kidney injury, and heat stroke, overwhelming emergency departments. A new and fast-escalating factor in global-warming projections is the enormous energy demand of artificial intelligence (AI). Fossil fuels are expected to provide more than half of data centre power through 2030, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) projecting data centre electricity use to nearly double to ∼945 TWh, about 3% of global demand.7 This surge was absent from climate scenarios even 5 years ago. From Dubai to Dublin, AI training workloads are prompting new investments in fossil-fuel generation, as these cannot be met by renewable sources. More than 85 large gas-fired plan...