More than half of the victims were not registered, arriving via"irregular" channels. The highest number of deaths was reported among Egyptians, but fatalities include people from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan. In the future, global warming will likely make things worse.
Saudi authorities moved out hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims from Makkah earlier this month, but many appear to have eluded security checks, joining other pilgrims during the first rites last Friday. As the leading cause of death, heat can trigger complications like high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems.
The Islamic calendar is lunar, so the pilgrimage moves back 10 days each year. Thus, while the Hajj is now moving toward winter, by the 2050s it will coincide with the peak of summer in Saudi Arabia. This could be"fatal" as Fahad Saeed, a climate scientist at Pakistan-based Climate Analytics, pointed out.