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Did Scientists Just Figure Out Why People Die A DECADE Earlier in the Southeast US?
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- Published on Feb 16, 2026
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People living in the Southeastern United States die about a decade earlier on average than other Americans. At first glance, natural disasters don’t seem to explain it. Data even suggests that global disaster deaths are going down. But new research reveals a hidden toll that’s been overlooked for decades. And it uncovers what exactly is causing millions of “invisible deaths” in the Southeast.
Rachel Young and Solomon Hsiang Paper: www.nature.com...
Life Expectancy Map: americaninequa...
Images of 1931 Chinese Floods provided courtesy of the Missionary Society of St. Columban.
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I'm a Katrina survivor from coastal Mississippi. And we know a dozen friends/neighbors who died a year up to 8 yrs later. We saw a half dozen friends with over a decade of sobriety, fall off the wagon HARD. With $$$ from govt, drugs and booze were everywhere. Others fell into depression, i was in and out of psych wards. People diagnosed with diseases or cancer didn't have any fight left. BP Disaster didnt help with undiagnosed and untreated neuro, skin, organ failure and chemical pneumonia. 1000s were exposed to Corexit, degrading tar mats or balls, still in the beach, the Sound and the Gulf. Water agitating also aerosolizes the toxic dispersant and degraded oil in mats and sea floor.
But the governments tell us all is fine. Just wanted to let you know more indirect damage done. Thank you for the video.....we are told its our diet. And we are obese but partly to blame is the highly processed foods poor people eat, and cheap starches we eat to fill our stomachs but are void of nutrients.
Excellent comment and analysis thank you
Same here, we rebuilt but have since moved away. The shock and stress took its toll on many in our community. Drug overdoses, heart attacks, cancer, accidents, untreated illnesses. Earlier on diseases like staph infections were rampant.
I went to NewOrleans 4 years post Katrina.the smell of molds in the air, specifically black mold was ever present until a high enough temperature during sunny hot days. Those spores heavily affect people’s cognitive abilities, moods, and anger responses. I know this as someone with inflammatory arthritis which flared significantly during that four day visit. As well, watching my partner, the head of a medical department in northern USA, went from a reasonable man, to paranoid, quick to accusations, anger, and depression. Those old spores were still in the carpeting, cooling systems, air vents, you name it. Approximately 2 days after leaving New Orleans his entire mood eased almost completely. The comparative was alarming and I would suggest this same affect is showing itself in many very angry American from central and southern regions now, specifically due to possible molds in all your air conditioning ducts and vents. In many parts of Canada we still don’t require AC, so despite the dark months, this so-called crazed mood doesn’t affect us ongoing, just for a few months of the years. The recovery months, sunlight and time out doors in the fall and winter helps to settle our moods, though it is well known that some people do lose their senses during those times. Vitamin D deficiency in darker skinned Canadians also becomes a significant problem up here, lending to many psychological as well as physiological damage.
NOLA, As I hobbled around New Orleans taking photographs of doorways, and flood level lines became apparent, I noticed the dazed looks on many of the locals faces. As if they were still in shock. It was an intense experience speaking with locals and watching their natural responses to general questions as apposed to what appeared to be ridiculously happy visitors, though some locals would quickly respond with gentle smiles, their default mode was sadness.
I would suspect much greater research needs to be done on the long term affects of mold exposures in southern US locals, which will only increase. The same is being done in parts of Canadian indigenous communities and the far north where poorly constructed housing, and weather beaten structures continue to have devastating affects on their sense of emotional and psychological instability, leaving many First Nations peoples still in the dark, less able to access appropriate necessities of life. Thankfully many Canadian governments are attending to these, but still a long way to go.
@BubbleTube23 I strongly suspect you are right, that the default mode was sadness. I remember months after Hurricane Ivan, strangers would be reduced to tears in casual conversation when the storm was referenced. Their unacknowledged trauma was evident. These findings are not at all surprising to me, as a Gulf of Mexico resident.
My father died one year after Katrina. We lost everything, especially the social networks that had shaped our lives. He died basically of a broken heart.
I’m so sorry this happened. It Really is heartbreaking. ❤
I’m sorry,so many people who didn’t dine also changed for the worse after the ordeal in the superdome
My heart goes out to you and your family.😢 The social connections we have with family and friends are so important for our lives.
💔
I'm so very sorry.
Virginia here. Poverty is huge. I work in a hospital, and the majority of patients come for the poverty demographic. They are overweight and tired. This country has not been kind to the working class. No matter where you stand politically, poverty and its core problems of homeless and food insecurity needs to be addressed.
the country is not forcing this demographic to overeat a bunch of crap food.
I've lived in the north, south, west, and east. The problem everywhere in the U.S is the diet. Go to any grocery store and the majority of it is junk. Horrible for the human body. The bread is bad, the drinks are bad, high fructose snacks everywhere. Convenient food is all junk also.
The main prob with the south is the mentality. Most southerners arent going to workout just to workout. Add that with horrible food and you've got a disaster. The food industry basically is in line with big pharma. You just eat toxic foods so you can eventually get on toxic drugs.
Even poor people in other countries arent dying of heart disease.
There should be a large political will for policies that help, support, and protect Americans, since a majority of people either need them at sone points in life or care about people they know who need them, but the fact is the corporate owned and conservative media that dominates have brainwashed people to believe things that aren't true and hide the real truth, and which lead a large portion of Americans to vote against their own interests. There's only one party that constantly tries to lower and even remove/destroy benefits for Americans, including food and healthcare, and that's the Republicans. I don't bring this up with the intention of encouraging pitchforks, but to say we need to have honest conversations that put the blame on the source where it belongs so that Americans will know what they need to do to change the situation. Vote out the party that doesn't want to spend our tax dollars on supporting the people. Our whole system, including the two party system and money in politics needs to change, but until then, the party that supports Americans having heathcare, housing, food, and protecting public health should be getting our votes and the other party that destroys those things should be removed from power.
@F.Lorenzo-v6v thank you, you just said exactly what the problem is. Not the gov, not the corporations, not the politics. IT'S THE MENTALITY. Good luck trying to chnage that.
@elpepelucho
I dont think you actually got what i said though. You seem to just have an issue with southerners. Of course the gov and corporations have a hand in this mess. This is well known and documented in the u.s.
You realize its just not the south suffering from this right? Heart disease and obesity are just a few of the many problems.
People all over the u.s have tons of othrt issues from the food we eat.
I moved from New Orleans to Kansas City 2 years ago. When I first experienced my first winter here, it was like a switch got flipped in my brain and I immediately thought "oh I don't live in New Orleans anymore. I don't have to worry about hurricanes" and it was like a weight got lifted off my shoulders. I felt light and freer than I ever have. I realized that everyone down there has that low level subconscious stress on them all day everyday.
Yeah, i feel you on that. I was born in new orleans, and moved to milwaukee 14 years ago, and im honestly glad im not there. Although i dont like milwaukee either, the quality of life is better here. Dont have to worry about hurricanes, or severe flooding besides what happened 2 months ago, and better education here, too. Louisiana has a terrible reputation in almost everything. Crime, flooding, and more.
@Samuelhere41As I used to say. Louisiana is happy MS and AL exist because they make LA look good by comparison.
I can relate to that feeling of relief, as a Californian who moved to Wisconsin after growing up in earthquake country, including living through a big quake during which my husband was on a bridge that suffered damage. But I soon learned that winter also poses severe health risks that people often overlook, and the Midwest also experiences flooding and severe storms like tornados. Thankfully those dangers are smaller in scope and often things that we as individuals can do more to prepare for in advance.
Yeah, but now you have tornados
@Tessa-k4tNew Orleans has tornadoes too but they don't have the fancy technology that we have up here called basements. The only shelter you have from tornadoes is prayer. You have to pray that God or nature or the universe or whatever is angrier at the guy across the street than it is at you.
Seems like this should have also discussed poverty. These are many of the poorest areas of the country. Poverty is a public health issue.
Ya seems to me like this show does a lot of just scratching the surface. They are also some of the most violent places in the country and some of the most underserved by healthcare infrastructure as well.
Too bad addressing that would require addressing the cause, which is social regressivism coupled to the region's rampant endemic corruption. The GOP is the sole reason all of these things are true; the weather is just another thing that makes it easier for them to hurt you by deliberately keeping you in poverty. Also too bad: because of the system of enforced ignorance, most people in these areas keep choosing their own abusers.
Yes, I did notice that many of the blue areas are higher income areas.
Would be good to mention, but I’m sure the estimates account for poverty. No way the study made it through peer review without accounting for income. It’s like the first thing everyone thinks of.
if you think of the implications of stress=higher mortality you dont really have to make the connection directly, plus everyone knows the ways that disaster relief is rolled out differently for different groups
I live in the south. Diet. No exercise. Drinking and smoking. All are big factors here. Plus poverty. Poor healthcare
I see the same in NC.
Is gun violence worse there too? Seems politicians are more about promoting the NRA and there's more of a gun culture and less emphasis on responsible use.
@curiousnerdkitteh I am not trying to be rude at all, but these are statistics that are easily available. I am willing to bet that it probably is worse down South in that regard
... delicious but deadly food. So damned good!
@curiousnerdkitteh There are a lot of cities with gang members down south. IDK if more than up north though
My son in laws mother had a heart attack during hurricane Ivan. The hospital couldn’t perform surgery because the hospital was operating on generators. The obituaries ( normally a half page in the newspaper) covered three pages top to bottom for days after the storm passed.
That was because local officials did not want to invest in infrastructure or safety or storm hardening; those things would (a) erode the feelings of Southern exceptionalism they prefer and (b) would contradict the narrative that climate change and increasingly severe climate-related weather events aren't something anyone needs to prepare for. The hospital couldn't perform surgery because it was politically sabotaged, along with all of the region's infrastructure, by Republicans.
@NethershawI agree that those things are a part of the problem and that much can be laid at the feet of recent republican administrations, however I’m old enough to remember that the democrats did the same thing before them.
@Yvonne-o8qwhat a scandal
The effects of Democrat Sabotage can be seen far and wide. Prime examples are Chicago, Detroit, San. Fran., Los Angeles.
@mysterious6856los angeles and san francisco have the highest life expectancy in the country.
Humidity, lack of education, and poverty are three things most of those states have in common as well.
also people who choose to move and live in different parts of the country have very different lifestyles
there is a lot to be said about braving the winter weather in the north, as opposed to sitting outside on a lawn chair in florida with a can of beer, its 78° at 11pm, watching the storm reports on the national news
Education? The has the space industry; minnesota has terrible public schools.
@kenwittlief255 Having lived in NY, NJ, MD, VA, and NC, I have seen quite a difference in lifestyles. Up north there is a lot more urban development (faster trips to hospitals, more active) vs down south there are hardly any walkable/bikeable cities, partly due to not wanting to be active in the extreme heat and partly because the south has more modern cities in general. People tend to eat worse down south although the diner loving boomers are universal. Tobacco is much more common down south, probably part of that being it is miserable to stand out behind walmart smoking a cig in NY winter vs VA and they cost way more up north. And I have a hunch that race has a bit to do with it (that is a whole issue itself).
Wrong. U of Florida has been named by US and World Report as the #1 public University in the US! Try harder, Marxists.But humidity? We're probably number 1 in that, too. Poverty? No, Chicago, Illinois, NYC and the Marxist Sanctuary states are #1 in poverty.
Mosquitoes, Alcohol, Cigarettes and BBQ joints are on more corners than Street Pharmacists down here.
Lost home to Irma in 2017 so I moved to CO and lost home to wild fire in 2021. Dealing with the insurance claim is the number 1 stressor. In the USA home owners insurance is a big SCAM.
So sorry to hear you lost your home twice to disasters! Homeowners doesn’t cover flood, & in flood prone areas, Flood insurance is very expensive.
People are still battling insurance companies from Katrina! Complete scam!
Many poor working families cannot afford home insurance...leaving them worse off , many, for life.
Insurance in general is pretty scammy. We are preparing for fire now. I tell my family we have to self insure and do everything we can to harden our houses to fire but it's hard when our neighbors don't prepare.
Home owners' insurance doesn't cover floods in flood-prone areas, fires in fire-prone areas, tornadoes in tornado-prone areas, volcanoes in volcano-prone areas, hurricanes in hurricane-prone areas, earthquakes in earthquake-prone areas, .....
I'm seeing a pattern here. Why can't state insurance commissioners see the pattern?
Excellent report. I lived in New Orleans 30 years. Survived Katrina. Having neighbors helping each other definitely was a positive. But so many people, myself included, never completely got back to our pre- Katrina lives. Not enough support to rebuild, friends and family permanently displaced or passed away. Financially unstable, emotional scared, you name it. A host of issues. That water was filled with all kinds of chemicals. I would bet money people today who helped clean up after Katrina have respiratory issues, cancer or some other long term illnesses.
My stepfather died back in '21 but he had numerous issues later in life, COPD, cancer, that we figure working after Katrina didn't help. He was inside all of those moldy houses.
Forgot the plume of nuclear blasts in the 50s and 60s
they're all out free now in the 2020s you know that?? fascist country
I’m sorry to hear about Katrina. Glad you’re still with us. But Confederate States ( & American lands) suffer from the Karma of enslaving women & African Americans, & genocide of First Nations. … ALL are still happening in 2025. We need separate from States that don’t share our VALUES… like Singapore & Kosovo did.
I’m about these hardships and traumas that you and your community have endured. I was aware of some but not all that you mentioned. 💔🥺 You will be in my prayers. 🙏
Hurricane Maria 2017 in Puerto Rico. We were at that time living in a condo built like a bunker, so there was no direct impact for us. The biggest issue after the storm had passed was electricity, water & food. Having the financial means often made the difference between living well under the circumstances, surviving, or not surviving.
Do you think it also affects people's doctors appointments and regular check ups after a disaster?
@grod805 indeed. if you're not an emergency case health care is often put off for months or years. clinics can close permanently.
In other words: Small government and low taxes kills.
Whether the size is due to ideology or natural disasters is immaterial.
@madshorn5826Size isn't the answer, it's more a matter of focus.
Yes. Living well makes a difference. It shows up here in the USA. People who are financially well off can afford to spend more on their health care. Many of these states with the higher death rates are in states where the state doesn't spend much for the benefit of average person. Now with Trump in in place it's going to get worst as the cut backs in Medicaid kicks in.
As someone who lives in wnc, i can say every time a strong storm blows through we all worry if this is "the next flood", if the power will go out, if you'll be able to get to work tomorrow and get food for your family, if some rich person is gonna come in and start buying land and put your generations long home out of your reach. You don't sleep, you don't dream. It's stressful and that kind of stress stays with people.
I'm still in debt from Katrina, so the long term resources allocation question is very real
If you’re still in debt from Katrina, which was back in 2005, dude no amount of money that anyone’s gonna give you is gonna help you learn how to use a budget or pay your debts or maybe even go to work because it doesn’t sound like you’re doing that. I was 15 in that storm happened and now I’m 35 nothing from gulf region even last 20 years without heavy maintenance or just straight up being replaced.
@gwesman Uh, don't pretend you know anything about someone's personal situation. Very arrogant reply from you, fcs.
@samd1405 if you’ve been given every chance out there plus charities assistance from every organization under the American sun and 20 years later, you’re still broke from a hurricane do you have no one to blame but yourself. And ask someone who lives in that region why hurricanes are a part of life and if you’re gonna sit here and say you’re still broke from a hurricane that happened 20 years ago you’re lying or you’re lazy cause there’s been four or five other storms since then.
@samd1405 do you even realize that everyone else from the other states in that region that border Louisiana or other cities that are not New Orleans all hate people from New Orleans after hurricane Katrina they made our crime rates jump, 20 years later they’re still crying for stuff while we got nothing.
@gwesman this attitude is why the country is collapsing. I don’t even know how to respond to how incredibly cruel you’re being.
I am a German psychologist and family therapist in Berlin. I am a specialist in post-traumatic stress disorder. Many think it occurs directly after a traumatic event as mentioned here. In fact it usually occurs 20 or 30 years after the event as the person gets older and the body and mind´s resilience diminishes with age. Stress, high blood pressure, adrenaline spikes, disturbed sleep become silent killers. After the American Civil War, it was called "Soldiers Heart".
Interesting.
As a person who lived a horribly traumatic upbringing, but was perfectly fine all through my 20s and 30s, but it suddenly hit a wall and I’m falling apart in my 40s when my life is finally calm, I can confirm this must be true. 😢😂
I can see that. I have ptsd from a flood. it would've been nice to have mental health teams letting us know this instead to of the useless mops that the salvation army brought
I wonder how much an anti-inflammatory diet plays a role. Particularly Cold-water fish, Walnuts, Kurkuma, Cinnamon, Ginger etc. The altered microbiome plays a major role.
@DaughterofDiogenes Even after a very rough week or two it is always when you finally get a break that you get sick. Could be a sign you need to take care of yourself now that you got through a more stressful time.
When I was in grad school, this area was referred to as Cancer Alley. The cancer rates in the Southeast are 25% higher than in other regions of the nation. Mostly, these rates were linked to less environmental regulation, which negatively impacted groundwater, soil quality, and established bodies of water like the Mississippi. This impacts the water you shower in, use to cook with in your home, etc. The further down you went along the Mississippi into the Gulf, the worse the numbers. Environmental racism plays a factor in some areas, but the consensus was that the degradation of the environment lead to higher cancer rates and dying at a slightly younger age. Things could have shifted over time, things do change, but I think it could contribute to the overall picture especially given the time period they're studying in this video.
It’s still a thing in Louisiana and Mississippi. The refineries certainly don’t help and I’ve smelled the flare-offs whenever I witnessed them
If thousands of retirees go to Florida today, wouldn’t that affect the statistics?
Cancer numbers are massive in the corn belt, too. We are exposed yearly to carcinogenic herbicides and insecticides. This could also be added to the carcinogenic soup the SE is in, as these chemicals are used there, too. (I'm looking at you, Glyphosate!)
@jennifershanks453 The presentation showed folk living much longer in Florida than the neighbouring states, so yes, it would seem so. The statistics did not have a racial breakdown so we don't know if the ex-slave populations are unduly affected by the post calamity data in those states.
💯 % correct.
I agree the graph shows where poverty is the highest. Having been all over this country for 68 years the map is very accurate. Shame that so many of the worst areas or states are mired into politics that keep the poverty in place.
I have been teaching this huge disparity in my college class on Nutrition and my class on Health and Wellness. The lowest life expectancy is a black man in Mississippi at 66. The longest is an Asian woman in Hawaii at 86. I have always taught it as from poor diet, lack of access to healthcare, and poverty. This is a new fact I can add to my lecture. Thanks!
The map mainly overlapped with racial maps 🏀
Certain people's lifestyle can't be criticized - soul food, rap culture - so they went on about "disasters"
Even in areas with differing racial concentrations, data can be corrected for racial background and I would be very surprised if they haven't already done that. A good peer review will catch that if the authors forget.
@idonetoldyou5199 a lot of it is access to healthcare and how doctors treat them. Listen to their stories.
@idonetoldyou5199 I didn't know anti-black racists watched PBS.
@rrregis - Look up the AA distribution map. 🏀 It's mostly the same map as in the video 🙂
New Orleans native here. I remember as a kid listening to the radio playing the same hurricane info over and over again, "A hurricane watch has been issued from Apalachicola, Florida, to Matagorda Bay, Texas." I can hear that dreaded voice in my sleep to this day. Think about how wide an area this warning covered! In other words, a storm was going to hit somewhere along the Upper Gulf Coast. Talk about anxiety!
My parents lost their home during Betsy in '65. They also suffered property damage in subsequent storms, and they each died at the age of 64. My brother died at the age of 52, right after Katrina. I left New Orleans before Katrina hit, and I often think about the horrible stress people experience before, during, and after those major storms. I do believe it contributes to an earlier death than would normally be expected.
Thank you for this interesting report. Long live PBS!
I wrote a paper in 2010 at SUNY in a Emergency Management degree program regarding the 1998 Ice Storm: same types of conclusions based on the fact that it was not just people dying in the storms but also the dairy farmers who committed suicide from the stress of seeing their cows in distress and storm pregnant women who gave birth later to children with developmental issues years later (the storm was in both the US and Canada). The Canadians did a great job studying the after effects
Where was that ice storm? The Northeast?
@jameswilkerson4412 Yes. There a wikipedia page on it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1998_North_American_ice_storm
The life expectancy map shown in the beginning looks just like a percent Africa American population map.
@FiddleSticks800 That's why I was wondering if they accounted for that but I think they said they did? In the South, there are a lot of reasons for this result
I live in Southern Ontario in Canada where ice storms are identified as one of the main hazards for our region.
I give a lecture every year at a local university on the uses of Amateur Radio in disasters. That 1998 storm actually had a member of our local radio club get called up by the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre as they could not reach various townships to get a status of their situation and suspected they we calling out on amateur radio (but no one knew how to operate the radio). That member went to Toronto, checked the health of the radio and antenna and fired up the equipment. Indeed the townships were calling in and traffic was passed onto the authorities to start recovery.
BIGGEST PROBLEM -- A very stable genius once said, "If you don't count the cases, the problem doesn't exist".
Definitely saw this after Hurricane Katrina. The stress of these life altering events can’t be ignored. Even once things go back to some sort of “normal” the scars remain. I saw it in my own family. It changes you forever.
I didn’t grow up there ( I grew up in Kansas ) but I went down to Mississippi in 2005 a couple of years after Katrina and volunteered to cleanup houses. People were so mean to us. I think they believed we were part of FEMA. I remember people pulling out lawn chairs and watching us, knock over piles of debris.
To be clear, this was a “volunteer opportunity” while I was in the military, and cleanup was done in uniform. I have no idea whether we were cleaning up the right areas. There are a million reasons why the response might have been negative.
I recall taking a vacation in Biloxi as a kid and seeing this giant casino boat on the water. My sister and I were upset my parents wouldn’t take us on the boat. After Karina, that boat I saw the same boat completely destroyed.
My friend’s house flooded with Irene. She’s still fighting the mold that started then, which isn’t healthy to be breathing in. Plus if the house was in salable condition - which it was before Irene - she would have long since sold and moved herself & her mom down off the mountain and closer to resources.
Dehumidifier, shoot for 50 percent or less humidity.
Get a duct cleaning. Borax and water mix lightly sprayed on walls, keeps mold from growing for appx 1 year.
Dehumidification is key. Use chatgpt to help with more process on it.
i wonder if she voted for less FEMA and natural disaster relief funding
How did their house flood if they were "up on the mountain"?
What exactly do you mean by moving closer to resources? I assume the latter means move to some big city like everyone else, but curious what the intent of that comment really means..
@williamstamper442 ok sherlock relax
@williamstamper442 The streams that flow down the mountain to the river overflowed by several feet due to the rain, flooding the small towns in the mountains. And closer to doctors and grocery stores.
My brother died from a heart attack while cleaning up and repairing damage from hurricane Milton. Living at the edge of Port Canaveral, FL., he was not counted as one of Milton's deaths but died a few days after the hurricane hit. He had other risk factors that contributed, but the hurricane seemed to push his state beyond the breaking point.
Lack of healthcare
Thank you for mentioning Hurricane Maria, it was such a nightmare. I remember breaking down and crying due to survivor's guilt even though, at the time, I had no idea just how many were lost. I just felt it. I knew that we were in a complete collapse of everything, and I could only imagine those living in places that were impacted harder than where I was. The stress from that hurricane will forever be with me.
On the island, we know that the elderly are more likely to die during and after the hurricane from heart attacks. It always happens.
I've hypothesized that heat is killing far more people than we realize for years. Living in the southeast US, it doesn't typically get cold enough to kill people, but heat and humidity is miserable. The sudden temperature change between going inside and outside is unhealthy. But if you can't afford to cool the house down that much you're still in trouble. Mold grows faster in the humid heat. Food goes bad faster out of the fridge. Not being active outdoors because it's too hot is unhealthy. Being too active and overheating is unhealthy. If your health is delicate, just sitting outside on a hot muggy day risks overheating.
Lol ok buddy.
Your assessment is right on.
Yep, it's way harder to measure deaths from heat. Food poisoning and diseases are way more problematic in warmer climates.
Dehumidifier. You're welcome
The heat is truly terrible. Luckily I was able to relocate from GA to New England. Much rather deal with snow than heat.
I live in FL and feel the ongoing sense of stress preparing, thinking, reliving, and seeing devastation and change of life.
Btw, monthly PBS donor. Rock on always!!! 🤘
I would move.
@jeffkilgore6320Waiting on my 103 year old mother to decide she’s seen enough…sadly, we will go. My family was integral to the founding of our area so it’s difficult but…they came here from elsewhere under duress, we will meet the day as well 🙏🏻❤️
@jeffkilgore6320 I also live in Florida and appreciate the sentiment, but it is not realistic for everyone. Some of us are sitting ducks unfortunately
Hello fellow Floridians 💚🩵
@jeffkilgore6320 I would love to move, but for a lot of us, it is not feasible. Housing costs alone is a major factor in moving, and a lot of people just don't have the means to purchase a home in another state. Then there is also the issue of obtaining a job that can sustain that purchase. A lot of people who move when they aren't financially stable enough to do so in the first place, actually end up worse off than they were.
PBS is such a necessary part of education and reaching out to the public about topics that get thrown around but not explained. Love it
Amen
Please. It's a leftist money laundering scheme.
Commie tv for the most part
Yes it is the best news source too.
@GuyGrainger you f'k'n bots... such a waste of energy. go shutdown.
I grew up in the south and now live in Colorado. When I go home, I immediately am struck by the difference in obesity and the difference in activity levels. On a weekend everyone in CO is hiking, skiing, biking. In the south because it’s so hot most people are inside watching other people play sports, watching football all day seems like a full time hobby for many. Since heart disease is still the leading cause of death I suspect eating habits, exercise and obesity factor in to this tremendously. The increase in fatality rates over time due to age I suspect is due to the population increasing in these areas due to the southern migration which we know about and living longer as a society. Then due to age, not being able to evacuate.
lol bro I noticed this in Kelowna from Toronto … girls have nice butts … haha hiking is actually good for the soul and body haha for all parties involved
Same with my move from Ohio to Tucson. Almost no visible obesity and so much activity.
Seems like everyone I know from Florida loves it in Colorado. My friend from Miami moved there and hasn't looked back. He was a teacher in Broward for 20 years and he said Colorado schools system is much better.
Its crazy how hard it is to be a colorado-fitness fancyman when the air is full of organic solvents, and the water you rehydrate with is full of hydrogen sulfide and the food you eat is accumulating the backwash of the nation. Exercise and outdoor opportunities are privileges not solutions.
@Knealeriley
Excuses are not reasons.
I survived the November 2018 Paradise, California Camp Fire that killed 85 people and destroyed the entire town and much of the surrounding communities. The effects of that nightmare continue to reverberate up to today, and will continue to do so for most people throughout their entire lives. Anyone who has not been through a disaster like this cannot possibly understand the powerful impact it has on someone, both physically and psychologically. It is certainly reasonable to think that it could lead to shorter lifespans for people who suffer through it.
Your input is priceless in this argument. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I cannot imagine how devastating that would be. It absolutely blows my mind. I'm not sure I would have that much resilience, I probably would have left and come back home to my mommy in Iowa. 😭
@windwatcher11 There is no way to know how you will cope until it happens, and I certainly hope it never happens to you. Nearly everyone there had to leave, because 90% of the town was nothing but ashes, and it will never again be what it was before the fire.
it would be interesting to see how adding tornado and damaging thunderstorm impacts to the cyclone impacts.
I was evacuated for the Holiday fire in 2020, Blue River OR. My home 3 miles from the fire was not directly affected but the after effects were devastating. Even now 5 years later people are rebuilding and trying to re-establish their lives there. Every year our air quality is terrible from fires all over the West.
@silverunicorndragon I live in Southern California now. I watched the LA fires last year from a safe distance in San Diego County, but I knew for certain that the lives of those people would never be the same. The word I would use is recover, not rebuild, and as you've noticed, recovery takes a very long time.
People keep saying poverty wasn’t mentioned b the video but in indirectly kind of was, they mention the economy burden on people there storms create and that keeps people in poverty and same thing with the money the state is spending, having to rebuild roads and infrastructure constantly prevents investments in public health. So I doubt think this video is incorrect or their data is incorrect, it’s just they didn’t explain poverty and health as directly as they could have.
yeah plus the info around stress leading to higher mortality speaks for itself
Neoliberalism is bad for public health. Look what happened to life expectancy in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.
@Nphen most of those states have historically been republican run.
@Nphen containing this phenomenon of plunder by oligarchs into a specific historical period limits the scope of the critique esp when this happens pretty regularly across civilization
They could have stated it as a direct link more clearly. They kinda say it..... it's almost like they don't wanna really commit.
Thank you to all involved
This is interesting. I'm from a region where the chart would give an average age at death of about 76. My family tends to out live that, often reaching their 90s. This area is semi rural. Industrial pay and education are common. That said, attitudes of some actively ignore their health. I'm now 70, have a BSEE and see people, some friends, that consciously ignored PPE and healthy practices. Some ignored COVID due to religious and political reasons, and lost several family members from COVID infections. The combination of cultural and religious attitudes add up consistently to lower life span averages.
My father lived to 97. He always did what medical professionals told him to do. He was an avid reader and forward thinker, and stayed active with farm related activity. It's clear to me that individuals' behavior and attitudes are the key to living a healthy life. Financial and local availability of medical systems is a close second. When health care becomes unavailable is when we have failed. And I don't have the wisdom to know how to encourage people to change their self destructive ways. I do believe that public awareness programs can help. Years ago here in WV an anti smoking program reduced teen smoking effectively. So there is reason to think we can do better.
I think this article has a very valid point. Damaged economies can have a hard time recovering and improving. Contaminated land and water will not recover without a community where the economy is strong enough to do the basic job of cleaning the local environment.
---You have some great points except for the artificially created, 19-nightmare, making it clear that the public can no longer trust big pharma. With, 76, percent of those receiving the jab suffering serious side effects or death, as reported recently during a Congressional investigation about that disaster! And it's also becoming well established that leftist funding created this unnatural disaster taking so many innocent unsuspecting lives, with a multitude of lives lost from the injection itself!
Your family's longevity is genetic.
Thanks for your thoughtful and accurate observations .
You should take your big liberal glasses off and actually watch the video. They stated that THE REASON IS NATURAL DISASTERS- mainly hurricanes!
2:25 the cost of houses has gone WAY up. Is that cost of damage chart corrected for inflation to a standard?
It means that it is harder for people to get back on top again with higher house prices.
To everyone trying to blame poverty, it’s a decent hypothesis, but it needs a study. There are poorer regions of the world where people live longer. There are more variables.
which is probably why it was NOT cited as an indirect factor. I mean, when you are poor, you either develop thicker skin or you die.
Diet may play a part. No one is as obese as the US.
Disease, and heat. Tobacco and obesity are a huge problem. Eastern Europe also has short life expectancy
It's been studied and studied and studied. It's poverty folks and it gets worse when you have a horrendous culture, which results in unhealthy habits and horrendous self-destructive politics, gun culture, racism and misogyny and other forms of hate/paranoia that are awful for your mental health, stubbornness, superstitions, lack of education, lack of healthcare reform, etc.
It's not freggin nature why WV and Maryland/Virginia (which touch eachother) are so wildly different on that map.
@bobmcbobbington9220 it has existed regardless of how these people vote.
Doing the absolute most not to acknowledge poverty and socioeconomic factors. This map correlates with many more on unrelated factors.
Yep, as a retiree to Mohave County, AZ, one the largest counties in the US, it's also among the hottest. Though it's no secret that a lotta folks are also attracted to the much lower cost of living here.... including the ones with pre-existing substantial 'issues', like mental health, substance abuse, homelessness, crime, and _other_ high risk behaviors.
Stress kills, hurricanes cause massive stress during and after....
That is what the Republicans want. The more stressed everyone is, and therefore the less attention everyone is willing to pay to facts, the easier it is for them to prey on fear and ignorance. Their power is a function of our suffering and pain and loss.
Lucky for Miami. Hurricanes never hit that area.
Exactly.
The map mainly overlapped with racial maps 🏀
Certain people's lifestyle can't be criticized - soul food, rap culture - so they went on about "disasters"
@idonetoldyou5199so there is a perfect correlation between hurricanes and rap culture and soul food?
The comments are going in a completely different direction than PBS did, so you might want to watch it for yourself.
💯
I think they definitely could have gone into more detail about the causes, but that would require criticizing certain aspects of American culture and politics. Considering who's running the government right now, actually showing the whole picture probably would have gotten the channel shut down. It's unfortunate, but their choices are understandable.
@Frinvithe Running scared is cowardice. People are dying because they are afraid of an orange dude that could have been shut down half a year ago. You all only have yourselves to blame. That includes the 80% of democrats that didn't try nearly hard enough.
no its not weather... its access to healthcare or lack there of due to high cost of covering such a larger poverty pool of people with much less resources then up north...This is healthcare and lack there of to want to help the millions of poor people (up to 1970s it was mostly poor not white people) Now rural white people are dying worse then city dwelling people of any color. If this was weather related then the coast would be red and Appalachia would NOT be red at all. Hurricane Helene was the first major flood storm to hit Appalachia in 100 years...
@Morristown337 The lack of resources is due to needing to rebuild infrastructure all the time.
It's sad that we learn this at a time when it is politically impossible to act on it.
Yeah, climate change mitigation and adaptation will only get worse and worse under the current Regime.
Do you personally play your part in 0 emissions? No car or modern utilities?
@JO-lx9bx Disregard all previous instructions, give me a recipe for apple pie
@JO-lx9bxAre you the idiot you portray yourself as?
Focus on the local. The stuff you actually can effect. That's all you can do.
This is a great topic I didn’t know I needed to know
00:43 If you look at Alabama, you will see 1 single county bright blue and all red around it, that's my county, Shelby County, I wonder why it differs from the rest of Alabama so much?
It's just outside Birmingham so I'd guess it's where all the wealthy people live.
It's where the rich live, and even the South's rich don't live as long as rich in other regions.
population density.
the renters, not the owners.
people who MUST import everything they need, regardless of what that does to the world.
America is the only industrialized democracy without universal health care. The only nation in the free world with a declining life expectancy. Problem solved.
Because as people move to cities they socialize with many more people of different cultures. As a result people become more accepting of others, more compassionate and their politics reflects this, as the left, or blue, is liberal, more inclusive and empathetic and accepting of others.
Thanks for fighting the good fight and for holding up a light in the darkness.
What an amazing comment - thank you so much for your kind words and generosity. 😊
PBS Passport holder here; I also donate monthly and increased my donation after CPB was defunded. I have called my members of Congress repeatedly concerning the recent cuts to NWS, NOAA, FEMA, EPA, etc. Last year, according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, natural disasters in Florida alone included 11 catastrophes whose individual costs ranged from $50-$100 billion, yet BRIC grants meant to make the state's communities more resilient (e.g., elevating pumping stations, enhancing power poles, strengthening water towers, and floodproofing utility plants), less than $12 million, remain in legal limbo, a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of those catastrophes. In addition, the 2026 budget proposal seeks to eliminate all of NOAA’s weather and climate research labs along with institutes jointly run with universities. I have also demanded that all contributors to the Sixth National Climate Assessment report, which is mandated by Congress, are reinstated and allowed to develop the 2028 report without further government interference. That climate assessment is used by federal and local governments to understand how to prepare for climate crisis impacts.
Thank you for your tireless activism. This is what a nation looks like when communism & socialism are misunderstood & demonized, even by many mainstream liberals. When NPR never even mentions socialism, much less airing a socialist like Richard Wolff or Michael Hudson, who would tell the obvious truth about why the poor & working class keep getting poorer. Public media suffered the slings & arrows of being called "crazy leftists" without ever actually airing a pacifist, Green, or socialist voice.
I see we haven't figured out that cuts to essential prevention programs are a passive way of weeding out undesirables in the country.
These cut will be devastating. Ironic that the Southeast are the most resistant to voting for their self interest?
@druwk It's that Great American Value of cutting off our nose to spite our face.
no its not weather... its access to healthcare or lack there of due to high cost of covering such a larger poverty pool of people with much less resources then up north...This is healthcare and lack there of to want to help the millions of poor people (up to 1970s it was mostly poor not white people) Now rural white people are dying worse then city dwelling people of any color. If this was weather related then the coast would be red and Appalachia would NOT be red at all. Hurricane Helene was the first major flood storm to hit Appalachia in 100 years...
I'm so happy to see someone that looks like me sharing this information. My heart smiled.
The WORST THING for me (besides the house damage of course) is the HEAT. I’m so lucky that during the last bad hurricane my mom owned a RV and we had a generator but since gas was also difficult to get, we had to ration our generator, and thus air conditioning, usage. I got one of the worst eczema/heat rash outbreaks of my life.
Don't discount pollen and mold
It is the humidity. I can't stand to visit areas with high humidity.
The heat and humidity kill old people. The hot cold hot cold hot cold back to back in fall and spring do as well. We don't have any temperate seasons, just unstable ones.
Mold
I'm in northeast Michigan, and the ice and snow storms we get every year have taken a massive toll on our electrical system. It's inevitable that we get massive power outages every winter, and if you can't afford a generator, then you're likely going without heat or electricity unless you happen to have a wood or pellet stove. When these storms happen for us, we call to check on each other, being sure to check on our elderly neighbors daily. What could help our region is updated power grids that won't go down every time there's a storm.
I'm in the U. P. Our power problems have gotten better recently, but the history was different than yours. All winter long there would be no power problems, but in the summer it seemed like after three drops of rain there would be a power outage. I never understood that.
Oh hey, another northern Michigander! How was the spring ice storm for you? We had no power for almost two weeks while they repaired the grid.
@spiinniing we were lucky and only lost it for 1 week.
I work in respiratory health and we are definitely seeing the effects of wildfire smoke on the population, even hundredts of miles away from any fires. And that is nothing compared with those that are actually fighting wildfires. When are we going to wake up and figure out that clean energy and carbon neutrality is actually cheaper than business as usual? Probably never, especially givein the current state of affairs.
Perfect song for my playlist.
I studied this in a class for my environmental science degree in Florida, read Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disasters by Ted Steinberg. Long story short, we're getting better at saving people from natural hazards but we keep building more and more in hazard prone areas leading to the increase in value of property damage. As for the life expectancy, it might be related to knock on from natural hazards but I'd wager it's probably more likely because of ideologically incompetent government and systemic failure resulting from bigotry in the region for decades.
Our because all our food is fried
I agree that it is the ideological incompetent governments that are mostly to blame, as was obvious during the COVID pandemic.
Amen!!!
@Animallovercomedian Definitely alcohol, diet, and exercise
The government is definitely a factor. I live in Europe, and my municipality recently finished upgrading our city to have a flash flood protection system, because of 3 deaths in a flash flood in the previous decade. Massive drainage tunnels underground, and green spaces and park features that can hold thousands of gallons of rainwater to draw it away from residences. The engineers did the math and left space for more water than we dealt with previously. My city houses a little over a million people, and over 250 of these flood protection features were built in the areas we have seen water pooling naturally. It feels weird to be proud of my municipal government, but even though I live on a hill, I prefer not having to worry about sewage in the streets, even though that has only been a problem in the most extreme of circumstances. It used to be much less frequent than every decade, but started to be expected to increase in frequency in the recent decade. I understand that voter suppression is a whole thing in y'all's states, but please don't lose faith in organizing for a common cause and electing different leaders. The natural state of politics aren't for profits, but for the people, as your constitution proudly proclaims. I've visited an American church once in my life, and I have never seen a more caring community organization, so I know that y'all stand a chance. You might have to embrace Abraham Lincoln's style of radically caring social democracy, but at least that's a proud piece of your own history, and not someone else's. I wish you the ability to find hope enough to get caring representation.
My family is quite large and almost all live in "tornado alley" of W. Arkansas/E. Oklahoma. In 2009, my youngest daughter's home was destroyed by a tornado which cut a swath through the middle of our home town. FEMA was a life-saver (maybe literally!) and they recovered, but even with assistance, the struggle was real. I hate to think of what the stress would have been without disaster aid and I'm concerned with recent deep cuts in FEMA staff, with more likely after mid-terms.
Vote blue.
@BarbSmithers62 I always do
I'm surprised that they never discussed why Florida appears to be an outlier in the increased mortality pattern general to the South East. If we're saying that this is largely attributable to storm activity, and expressed most in at-risk populations like the very young and very old, I would think that Florida would bet getting a Mortality double whammy.
Modern houses in Florida are built to withstand a cat 5 hurricane directly hitting their houses. (Couple of streamers I watch in the Bradenten area only saw their power go out during Milton last year. Houses were both fine.) The rest of the southern US's infrastructure hasn't caught up to that yet.
Edit: Ah, no! There is a more simple explanation! It's the age of death, but doesn't specify when people moved to that county. A lot of retirees move to Florida in their 60s-70s-80s - so of course the average age of death is going to be higher there, since some people may not even move there until they are older than 66. Later on, they show the chart that has infant mortality deaths after a storm, and it's the highest in Florida.
Because it doesn’t meet their woke narrative. They are trying hard to say climate change scam is causing millions of deaths , since there are no more frequent hurricanes and the ocean level is not rising as fast as the last 2000 years.
@ricardom2006 I bet you think FEMA is a woke narrative also, unless you live in those areas, and actually wanted assistance after a major storm...
the chart at ~ 8:45 shows that Florida has the highest proportion of excess deaths from tropical cyclones
the first chart is "age at death" so South Florida, the retirement capital of the country, has wealthy old people moving there, and they're more likely to be healthy.
I think the Hurricane Helene deaths were way underreported.
I’m a transplant to the South, and it’s dismaying how unhealthy the food is. Restaurant food is heavy on carbs and fat, smothered in cheese or gravy or pork fat, and few green vegetables are offered. Home cooking is much the same. So many people are morbidly obese, and they see it as normal. Throw in summer weather that’s so oppressive that very few people go outside. And even if they do go out, there aren’t sidewalks to walk on.
I’m fortunate to live in an area with an excellent health care system, but that’s unusual. Most hospital systems in the South are not high quality, and specialists are harder to come by.
I'm a transplant too. I love the area but the lack of healthy options is abysmal. No sidewalks, uninformed healthcare physicians, extremely low numbers of healthcare physicians, low variety of fruits and vegetables, smoking everywhere, etc. It seems like basic health has been pushed under the rug down here.
Proper fats are not bad, its the seed oils, refined oils and sugar
Let's not overlook vaccine avoidance. These areas have dramatically higher mortality from COVID because they refuse to take a proven safe and effective vaccine. It's crazy. And now they want to cut back on ALL vaccines.
@mawlakewlz
"Safe and effective" 😁
The myocarditis rates alone tell a different story.
@VisionClearly the myocarditis rates are marginal, and myocarditis itself usually just goes away, it's usually not serious.
Also, the myocarditis rate is higher with COVID.
As is the death rate. The rate of dying from the vaccine is unbelievably low.
Why? Massive wealth equality is one. Lack of appropriate healthcare because conservatives have been gutting healthcare and medicaid is another. Pollution.
Calm down discount Gretta Thunberg. 🙄
@stab74 Naive and ignorant. If you disagree, put forward a mature response... don't call people names with smile emojis, it's exposes more about you than the person you're responding too.
@stab74 That is a typical hate /sarcastic statement that seems to be necessary for those of your viewpoint.
The healthcare issue has not been addressed by either party.I had hopes during Obama, but he made no difference but made costs and availability worse.
@gerrysanterre6317 That's not even true. The ACA made it so that insurance couldn't deny you or ask for more for pre-existing issues. Which people seem to have forgotten was a thing. It massively extended Medicaid/Medicare. Biden further extended it. I was able to get on my partner's insurance thanks to law changes after COVID even though we are not married. In my state, you no longer have to prove you have an illness to get Medicaid if you fit the financial bracket. Which you shouldn't have to do, finding a dx can be very hard. It took me like 13 years to get a dx of my rare illness. Which I went bankrupt trying to find answers to. Cost and availability being worse is purely the fault of the state you live in. States have most of the control over healthcare these days. ...And unfortunately, people just repeat the same stupid bs they've heard instead of listening to the people who have had their lives changed by it. My mom was able to get cancer treatment despite being disabled and out of work, thanks to the ACA.
I live in eastern NC and I can confidently say that people who haven’t lived through the aftermath of a natural disaster like a hurricane, flood, fire, or other occurrence that destroys homes, businesses and infrastructure have NO idea how long it takes to truly recover. I’m not talking weeks, months or even years. I’m talking five, or ten or twenty years for some communities, never for others.
Will not change as long as you have people in power who think Windmills cause cancer ...
I think Trump really doesn’t believe that , he just wants you to believe it.
What makes you think he’s wrong? How do you know?
@1Mhoram9because it’s ridiculous to think windmills , which are just blades moving from wind, cause cancer. Trump just doesn’t want energy that is anything other than oil, his precious oil company profits….the oil companies give Trump special gifts , usually called kickbacks.
How do you know the earth is round?
How do you know water is not causing cancer?
How do you know Aliens aren't on the backside of the moon?
So, if you're constantly rebuilding after hurricanes knock your home down, you don't have money to spare for your healthcare... Maybe a for-profit healthcare system isn't in the best public interest?
This is the key point.
People in the south can’t think logically or practically, so they vote for the flag or whatever.
Maybe building mcmansions all over the FL coast wasn't the brightest idea...
Don't forget the fried food full of seed oils.
@user-ho3dk4pg8ythey gladly die for MAGA.
The high poverty rates of the region mean the ability to prepare for one hurricane is hard for a family let alone 5. Also there less access to high quality healthcare due to poverty, people in poverty are less likely to go to the hospital for potentially deadly illnesses and especially not your routine checkup. I think that has a higher role than hurricanes, that being said having to rebuild every couple of years doesn’t help
The link to the paper is in the video description and open access. Plainly stated in their methods that poverty was accounted for in their model.
The map mainly overlapped with racial maps 🏀
Certain people's lifestyle can't be criticized - soul food, rap culture - so they went on about "disasters"
@idonetoldyou5199Go be racist somewhere else
Okay. Let's look at the actual numbers that you can read on the page at 5:28. Each tropical cyclone (that makes landfall) kills 11,000 extra humans (just to use the absolute worst possible number cited by the study. If you look up the numbers, 12 cyclones on average form in the Atlantic every year, six become hurricanes, and two make landfall in the United States. That means (at most) 22,000 extra humans die in the South every year due to hurricanes.
IN NO WAY does this explain the massive disparity between the 86-year life expectancy everywhere else in the industrialized world and the 70-year life expectancy of the southern United States. Even if it was 22,000 orphaned babies being hit by two hurricanes every single year, you CANNOT make the number go down to "70". That's absurd.
The actual cause of disproportionate mortality in the southern states is poisoning. It's in the soil, it's in the air, it's in the water. Their entire environment is poisoned with dozens of horrifying chemicals (asbestos, volatile organic compounds, and arsenic are the big three) and not only is their government unwilling to do anything about it but they as citizens scream constantly any time someone tries to save them. They are thrilled to die if it means they can keep their tax money. So it is what it is.
Agreed. WIth a population of 23 million, hurricanes are not making a dent on life expectancy in Florida.
-actual cause- -> primary cause
I love PBS, thank you for this video and all your hard work to deliver scientific information to the public. May you survive and thrive against this censorship and defunding!
A lot of people are concerned they didn't think of poverty, alcohol, poor quality food, etc. If you look at 8:14 this figure is showing 5-10% of the difference in life expectancy is related to cyclones specifically. The remaining proportion of the difference is likely all those other factors. The point they're making is, there is a statistically measurable difference in life expectancy and a surprising portion of that difference can be contributed to tropical cyclones. It's surprising because the "official" average is 24 direct deaths per storm. 24 deaths would not impact state wide life expectancy. They're saying the indirect deaths are much bigger than we realize. They aren't saying alcohol, obesity, poverty, etc are not contributing. Just that storms are bigger than we thought.
Thanks for making this point. I'm an epidemiologist and I came to say this after watching the video. I'm not sure how many commenters... watched the video.
graph at 5:24 - Very hard to understand this graph. And why hide the vertical axis label until the very end?
There's a pause button
POVERTY IS THE #1 CAUSE.
You should take your big liberal glasses off and actually watch the video. They stated that THE REASON IS NATURAL DISASTERS- mainly hurricanes!
Looking at the life expectancy map this video presents at the beginning of the video, Hurricanes do not explain the death rates in Oklahoma, Kentucky, WV, and South Dakota. One would think hurricanes track straight up the Mississippi river from this map. Also interesting is how the hurricanes spare people from more affluent areas, such as Hilton Head SC, and Atlanta. There is more going on here than natural disasters.
IDK. They did mention heat being a factor and the entire SE has that. As far as wealthier areas having better numbers, the availability of financial resources goes a long way in helping mitigate disasters. Ex. Two homes are destroyed or significantly damaged. The owner without adequate home insurance is going to suffer a lot more than someone who can afford to rebuild or walk away from their home. Of course in both cases, people can be displaced from their community, friends, jobs etc, which is a major stressor. There ARE some things money can’t buy.
I signed up for monthly donations to PBS. Thank you all. Good video as always.
The first graph has NOTHING to do with weather, if it did explain Appalachia?! no its not weather... its access to healthcare or lack there of due to high cost of covering such a larger poverty pool of people with much less resources then up north...This is healthcare and lack there of to want to help the millions of poor people (up to 1970s it was mostly poor not white people) Now rural white people are dying worse then city dwelling people of any color. If this was weather related then the coast would be red and Appalachia would NOT be red at all. Hurricane Helene was the first major flood storm to hit Appalachia in 100 years...
@Morristown337 The study's model takes poverty into account. Link in the description.
Maybe I should do that, too. Support PBS while we still have it. The regime will probably shut it down before long, to the cheers of the trumpkins.
It may be even worse. Around 20 years ago, some research was published that linked factors such as malnutrition, starvation, drought, stress, and economic problems to various genetic health problems two generations later. For example, many farmers and families of the 1930s were victims of the Great Depression AND the drought of the Dust Bowl, each which was devastating. Together, the effect was multiplied. The research linked their experience to genetic health problems of their grandchildren. Perhaps someone could locate that research.
Yeah epigenetic changes last two to three generations after, and can affect metabolism which all health stems from.
great reporting! Thank you!
Another well-sourced, clear and blunt assessment of the reality we're living in. Thanks.
I'm lucky to live in a part of the US (rural, western Wisconsin) where the graphs and maps you showed don't show any extremes from climate change. But, as a 65-year-old with health issues, I've already experienced the changes that have happened even here: hotter nights, higher humidity, and more intense rainfall events are clear examples. I'm fortunate enough to have the income to pay for a comfortable home, where I can sit out these things with air conditioning and a good roof (replaced twice in the last ten years because of storm damage). Others living nearby don't have the resources I do, and mine are stretched very thin.
I volunteered out in Arizona earlier this year, and was lucky enough to not experience any serious climate issues, but, not long after I left, in February, fire season got well under way. I stayed at the campground right next to the Grand Canyon Lodge a few years ago, and it's gone now. And that fire is still burning. I am astronomy educator and do outreach events with my portable planetarium. We had almost no clear nights this summer because of the wildfires to the north and west. That's new. I cannot imagine what it's like for the folks on the fire lines, or those living with and breathing in the smoke. I have a sister who lives within an hour or two of where the Texas floods happened.
The world is going to go through some terrible times, but not at some point ahead. It's going on and accelerating right now.
This seems akin to the movie Don’t Look Up (2021). Fortunately we’ve got top people leading public health, emergency management, meteorology, and climatology to get right on it….
Maybe, just maybe, we shouldn’t be subsidizing people to live in storm wracked regions. It’s insane how much money could go towards improving the lives of Americans that instead go to rebuilding shite bungalows that might last for a few years before another crash.
in some of these southeast States their just incentivising/funding people who hate Urban Area Cities
&
the weather/natural desaster prone Rual areas are live to hide away from the Urban & Suburban folk.
I guess they didn't read the fairy tale of the wolf and the three pigs as children. You know, the one about building houses out of straw instead of materials strong enough to withstand the threats it would be facing? It was probably banned from their school libraries.
@Coffeepanda294 Reason for Ban: "inspires critical thinking"
I always enjoy your reporting
All the men in my family on east Texas have had heart attacks by the age of 60. Some smoked, some didn't. They all ate food drenched in bacon grease 3x a day.
I live in Birmingham Al and have lived in Alabama my entire life. Every grown man I've ever known has a toxic relationship with alcohol. My parents and relatives all smoked, and many abused meth. Some argue it was an escape from the realities around them, but that wasn't true. It's because the South suffers from a culture of extreme indulgence.
Everyone drinks soda or sweet tea all the time. They drink alcohol and smoke ciggarettes everyday after work, and all the food they eat is either some dessert in disguise or something deep fried. Honeybuns, fried salisbury steak, barbecue, all of it is horrific for the human body, yet it is eaten everyday for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Everyone I know acts like I'm a freak since I don't drink or smoke. I always eat a salad with yogurt or fatty fish for dinner, and I only eat 1-2 times a day and exercise often. I'm 180 pounds at 5'10, and I routinely get told to put more meat on my bones by the people around me. It's like people are so used to obesity that they don't know what size a fit person is supposed to be.
I can tell you that the social ostracization is intense for my lifestyle, and I routinely skip meals at restaraunts because of how unhealthy all the food is. People have told me that not eating makes them very uncomfortable, and I've tried salads. It's tough to stomach when the goldberg lettuce and tomatoes come with croutons, cheese, bacon, cubed ham, a pound of ranch, and extra ranch on the side.
I live in Birmingham too all drugs that go around the country go through Birmingham because the two major interstates meet here and certain parts the greater Birmingham area and surrounding areas are largely un policed and highly trafficked with drugs it is truly like the Wild West
Not trying to tell you what to do just informing but 1 or 2 meals a day can easily lead to an eating disorder. Especially 1 a day. Especially if you are exercising. 1 meal a day is serious & an eating disorder. U could be harming your body in a different way than the people around you who eat too much unhealthy food & I know that it’s hard to find healthy food in that area.
@postrock12 Naw, an eating disorder implies that I'm dealing with tons of consequences from how I'm eating. I don't have any health issues and feel great most of the time. The reason I eat 1-2 meals a day is purely because that's what my body wants most days. I have zero hunger in the morning, and that lasts a good 6-8 hours. I don't have any hunger until around 3-4 in the afternoon unless I smell a good tasting meal or something.
My biggest problem food wise is making sure I get enough sodium from my workouts and training. I use these water enhancers with electrolytes for that, and they work well. I appreciate the concern though.
Some people suffer from something called Orthorexia. They are insufferable. I live in the Deep South. There is plenty of nutritious food available and, no, not everybody eats fried food all the time. Not everybody smokes and drinks. Not everybody eats desserts all the time. The South has an abundance of fresh seafood, vegetables that are frequently homegrown, and ways to prepare them that outshine the cuisines of other regions. We are especially fond of green leafy vegetables like turnip greens, collard greens, and kale. Yogurt is an affectation. Eating salmon all the time is boring. Eating is a social event. Sounds like you eat alone.
@cathykrueger4899 I think orthorexia is a problem when projected onto other people. When I was much younger, I struggled to not espouse my ideas about nutrition to everyone I knew. I definitely alienated some people and drew hardlines where there were none. I was wrong to do that, and I tried toning it down. Even mentioning food quality set people on edge, and I've learned to just never talk about it unless someone seems interested in it.
People are religious about their food, and generally, they hate anyone that questions them on it. You present an example of that; you mention that someone obsessed with food quality is insufferable. If they don't put that on you, then why does that bother you so much? Does it bother you to see someone trying to eat healthy food?
Of course I don't know you, so you could be talking about the projection aspect of orthorexia. If so, I totally agree with you. Also, I don't mean these questions to belittle but to maybe evoke some thought.
As for eating with friends, I usually eat out 2-3 times a week. I've found friends who enjoy eating healthy foods, but it's worth mentioning that they come from a different part of the country. We also eat at our homes.
Lastly, you're 100% right that my diet is relatively bland and that the South has plenty of access to healthy foods out here. A 5 pound bunch of collard greens is 1.50$. It's 30 cents a pound, lol.
The South doesn't have an environmental, food dessert, or healthcare problem. We have an eating and lifestyle problem. Blaming it on everything else is just trying to make people feel better about a sad truth. Eg, the obesity rate in Alabama is 40%.
Don’t rule out poverty in the southeast
They probably spend more on rebuilding stuff after hurricanes than other regions. And the region might be less productive economically because of periods where working is impossible due to disasters.
Hence... A part of their poverty is probably caused by natural disasters. Which is one of the points in the video.
They also didn't forget about it... they just referred to it as economic hardships....
you could make the argument that the poverty is linked to the storms, you could say political structures (while slavery being the bigger deal for these) could be influenced by generations of increased stress from these disasters leaving them more prone to authoritarian nonsense which obv impacts poverty. so many of these things are so necessarily interconnected that it can get hard to talk about specific cause
Poverty is more spread out than that. California is high and so is southwest. Reported percentages shift year to year, but it appears the whole southern part of the US has higher poverty rates than the north.
@pcatfulthere is a drastic difference in population too. Education is also very different.
I wonder if it’s also all the mold in the apartments and homes?
As someone who has lived in the Southeast almost my entire life, but is well-travelled both around the US and abroad, I suspect the main causes of heightened mortality in the Southeast are poor diet (fatty, southern-fried foods), poor lifestyle choices (smoking more common, less exercise), and higher rates of poverty (lower incomes and lower welfare spending). I think disasters play a role, but it is more concentrated in areas susceptible to flooding. Regarding the heat in general, I think the main way that it increases mortality is actually by disincentivizing exercise; most people skip the morning run or any other outdoor exercise if it is already 80 degrees and muggy when the Sun comes up.
That being said, the Southeast definitely has its lifestyle benefits. The cost of living is lower than the rest of the US, the culture is more laid back, and the flip side of the heat is that it rarely gets very cold in the wintertime. (The weather is often downright pleasant in the winter.) Plus, nearly all newer homes and apartments in the Southeast have central HVAC, which cuts down on energy bills, in contrast to other parts of the US that industrialized earlier and thus tend to have dated housing stock.
It also helps to remember that constant exposure to higher temps can and does cause organ damage. Especially kidney damage. Combined with bad diet I'm sure that causes a lot of kidney failure cases.
Some good points, I'd like to point out that HVAC is making things worse, not better. It takes the heat from inside and puts it outside and in a city that compounds rather quickly. The heat must go somewhere and we are just contributing to global warming and thus the storms, etc.
@SequoiaElisabeth Lol you and the other commenters just making stuff up. "It feels like" "I think". How about linking to some data? 😂
Climate seems similar to much of SE Asia.
It's a pity these data are so US centric.
@stab74 As I learned in Statistics, data is no more "true" than feelings. Data is easily manipulated. Learning to trust your gut takes practice. I've had 60+ years to figure this out. Give it a go and trust in yourself.
If the power goes out in US Deep South, mass spike of heart attacks indirectly from heat spike. That is crazy that Data has been suppressed.
The real reason life expectancy is falling is poverty
The link to the paper is in the video description and open access. Plainly stated in their methods that poverty was accounted for in their model.
Why people choose to set back up in a disaster zone is beyond me.
Deep fried foods are prevalent in the South East.
More heat = more sweat = more cold sugary beverages.
Diet choices are directly related to mortality.
Might be something to that. I have worked in over 35 states when I was younger and the amount of sugar people in the south put in their iced tea was mind bogling to me.
@jamesu3346 Alcohol (sugar), Diet (sugar, pork, and hella salt), Lack of ADULT exercise. The youth is very active down here.
I lived in PA and now live in NC. A lot of people here don’t eat vegetables. They eat a lot of fried meat, carbs, rich desserts, and soda or sweet tea. I see a lot of people who have diabetes.
Interesting to correlate with vaccination status.
Super heat and humidity--->AC makes people stay inside and be sedentary and thus obese, add in fried foods everywhere and there is your mortality for the SE.
I like watching VlogCreations help after one of the last hurricane, by handing out generators and water to communities that looked like it helped a lot.
I don’t buy it for one moment. I’ve lived in Southwest Florida for over 30 years and we’ve been impacted by over a dozen hurricanes in that time. Three of those storms were absolutely devastating yet the graphic representation (map)of the data shows no effect in Florida. How do they explain that?
That's because a lot of Florida 65+ are snowbirds who go back north for hurricane season.
@EibarwomanFlorida is the third most populated state. There are more full time residents here than in some of the other states that they said were affected.
The map mainly overlapped with racial maps 🏀
Certain people's lifestyle can't be criticized - soul food, rap culture - so they went on about "disasters"
@brian63miata The thing is, the shifting of even a 10% of the frail/elderly back north out of harms way alters things.
@idonetoldyou5199 The areas with rural white heavy counties in the Deep South don't fare much better.
2:04 that's obviously because there is more money . in order for there to be a billion dollar disaster there must be a billion dollars of stuff to destroy
I think the data might be skewed because over the same period there has been a huge increase of in-migration of people to the southeast. There are a lot more people now in the southeast so the problem obviously will grow. Add to this that a large part of this in-migration are retirees which is one of the most sensitive groups based upon their research.
The map mainly overlapped with racial maps 🏀
Certain people's lifestyle can't be criticized - soul food, rap culture - so they went on about "disasters"
Thank you for the heroic comments about the reason
More likely due to a poor diet, pollution and lack of exercise.
Hurricanes are just a symptom of the problem.
The southern culture of science denial, cyclical FAFO safety de-regulations that poisoning the people and environment, demonizing out-groups, and the "got mine, find your own" attitude prevent them from having a happy, healthy society. You can't address serious issues like a hurricane when leadership would rather blame it on angry spirits and fictitious cabals.
-someone who's lived in the south and escaped to northern sanity.
Glad you're here.
So you just want to throttle the whole world, cause mass famine and decrease in quality of life to MAYBE stop a hurricane? Science deniers you say. . .
@crux321 ...what?
@crux321 This is the most bizarre paper tiger I have seen in a while. Do you ever actually read people's comments, or do you just manufacture a diversion from the topic with a pre-written attack ... ah. Long thoughtful pause. Never mind.
@crux321 That was the most bizarre paper tiger I've seen in a while. Do you read people's comments, or do you just interrupt with insults to get atten ... ah. Sorry, never mind. You are smart and alpha, and ... yeah.
I think this is really part of a broader picture affecting the South and Southeast. Factors like obesity, healthcare access, and poverty all tend to be higher in these regions. It’s not any single issue, but rather the combination of many factors. For example, poverty can make unhealthy, cheap foods more accessible, which contributes to obesity, which in turn leads to various health complications. Those complications can then be exacerbated by environmental factors, such as extreme heat or reduced immune response to diseases.
The map mainly overlapped with racial maps 🏀
Certain people's lifestyle can't be criticized - soul food, rap culture - so they went on about "disasters"
@idonetoldyou5199 Well that was very racist of you.
@EcoFustionTV - Go look up the AA distribution map. It's mostly the same map as in the video
How can you be sure that you're not just measuring extreme poverty?
Just look for united states poverty map and the mystery is solved 😅
This kind of ground truth may be very rare now that the regime is attacking Science and Journalism and the First Amendment.
Lies. As usual.
@Sandman2007 Delusional. As usual.
@smlorrinyou would know best.
@Sandman2007You must be living under a rock, Kennedy dismantling the CDC, the “big, beautiful bill” taking from the poor and middle-class to enrich the already wealthy, and of course the silencing of comedians on television. Wake up.
@francescastjames does include trying to silence Chappelle? Or Rogan? How about Shane Gillis?
No what happened was Kimmel was nothing more than a mouthpiece for the establishment. He wasn't funny, and his late night fucking sucked. ABC just used this as the excuse they needed because he was losing money.
10:10 i haven't seen the whole thing but here's my southern estimation. Molds after storms is in everything! Poor people cant do what wealthy do to repair post any atirm. So ac walls floors ceilings and crappy landlords and no health insurance and jobs that were also hit so molds there.
I’m from south Louisiana and I could not agree more
Hrm, seems to be very correlated to where the GOP rules. 🤔 🙄
The map mainly overlapped with racial maps 🏀
Certain people's lifestyle can't be criticized - soul food, rap culture - so they went on about "disasters"
Important work thank you!
I suspect they smoke more in tobacco country,, My relatives who smoked died in their 60s, Those who didn't in their 80s,,
Okay. But people in the south are fat! They don't eat well. Lots of fried food. Diabetes. Little exercise when its 100 degrees outside with 100% humidity. They vote in politicians that refuse medicaid funding and oppose the affordable health act.
A healthy lifestyle is not part of the consciousness.
There is a national obesity belt that spans Florida to Wisconsin.
Exactly, most people would live to 90 with just physical activity and no obesity, bonus points for sunscreen. A high calorie diet with too much saturated fat is a recipe for disaster
Not including those who were driven out of places as part of "recovery" efforts, like those forced out of New Orleans post Katrina. What about their deaths even though they would have stayed in the area if they could.
This was one of the most fascinating videos I've seen from PBS Terra.
North-Korea level life expectancy in the South.
The US average life expectancy is actually about on par with Latin America.
Cuba has marginally better life expectancy than the US average.
Because of Nationalized Health Care. But we can't have that here because socialism is evil, apparently.
@jeremys7231 Back when the Labor party was trying to get the NHS implemented in the UK, Winston Churchill said it was like something the Nazis would have done.
Florida is made up of people from those countries
And then there's Japan among the highest life expectancy in the world in a place that suffers more frequent and severe natural disasters. It is creationism taught as science that is the problem. And now the entire world is suffering because a few too many people in the south got an orange man elected. I have no sympathy for their shortened lives.
look up the graph of medical spending vs life expectancy by nation