Scientists: Extreme weather will kill millions

[JoFerret]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=nm/environment_climate_dc

EXETER, England (Reuters) - Millions of people across the globe are set to die early due to extreme weather events such as floods and heat waves caused by climate change, a British scientist said Tuesday.

Professor Mike Pilling cited the heatwave in Europe last year that killed thousands of people from a combination of heat exhaustion and an increase in atmospheric pollution.

"We will experience an increase in extreme weather events," he told reporters at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (news - web sites). "There are predictions of a 10-fold increase in heat waves.

"The increasing frequency of these will inevitably result in a sharp increase in the premature deaths of people," he added.
(more)

[ck4829]

1. And to think we have people like Jim Inhofe in Congress who say...

"Global Warming is not real"

Tell that to the millions who will die.

We have 1000's of people who die at the hands of terrorists.

And

We have millions who die at the hands of Corporations and the Allies in the Right.

[schultzee]

17. Hey, ***'s faith based science is at odds with the real science.

[stevebreeze]

2. far too few people understand this is what global climate change does

global warming is not a very accurate description of what IS happening.

Has there ever been 3 hurricanes in one season hit FL? It is still early Ivan could still hit FL and Sept is usually the worst month for hurricanes.

[swag]

3. Perishing on-camera from a heat wave, John Stossel will blame

government emission controls for climate change.

[librechik]

4. some day they're going to want to kill us for doing all the polluting

and none of the clean up.

But let's change the subject, just say no to Kyoto, and pretend terror is somebody else's problem.

[The Traveler]

5. Reminds me of a conversation at work today

Bushites denying the reality/significance of global warming. Weary of reciting the torrent of supporting evidence, I simply said, "Well, this is one you better be right about. Folk like you are gambling with your children's future. Everything is on the table, right now. So you better get it right or your children will curse you for your ignorance."

They didn't quite know how to respond to that.

:evilgrin:

[NMDemDist2]

7. excellent response n/t

[JoFerret]

9. An excellent response

they also might want to take a look at yesterday's NYTimes report on just how fast these changes are occurring.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/06/international/americas/06canada.html

The Eskimo way of life in changing yearly as the climate shifts. Very scary. And these people are so certain - can't they allow at least the possibility and then act as prudent conservatives? (Silly question - they are ideological puppets and servants of special interests. But even "special interests"have a stake in the future....don't they?

I suppose the apolcalytic religious have a stake in the early demise of the world....

[Shallah Kali]

14. Weather changes are just signs that Jesus is coming to the fundies

this is why they can't believe in global warming they think this is God's doing.

[reprobate]

16. Corporations have no stake in the future further than the next quarter.

This is the attitude that is on the way to the end of our civilization. If there truly is a threshold effect to global climate change, once it starts there will be nothing can stop it. This has to cause massive population displacement, and it could be bad enough to destroy the controls of government.

[hatrack]

13. Well, 30,000 dead elderly Europeans in a single heat wave wasn't enough

These people aren't going to listen until the Ross Ice Shelf cracks in half, the Missouri & Colorado run dry, malaria returns to Philadelphia, & Kilimanjaro goes bald. And even then, they'll shrug and say something like "Well, there's no real PROOF that this is climate-related."

Next time, try this approach on them.

First, ask them if they believe smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer & heart disease.

When they say yes, ask why. More specifically, ask them if they think doctors and scientists have proven that smoking causes lung cancer & heart disease. When they do, that is the moment you have them.

The reason you have them is simple: no one has ever "proven" that smoking cigarettes is linked to these diseases. To do that, you need to take 500 sets of identical twins - better yet, make it a thousand.

The moment they are born, separate each pair of twins. Take one child and put him/her in a room where they will breathe only specially purified, processed air for the rest of their lives. Take the other half of each paif of twins and place him/her in a room where they will breathe only specially contaminated air (so that breathing it 24 hours a day is equivalent to smoking two packs a day). Then, in 80 or 90 years, when the last subjects have died, you can do the definitive breakdown on mortality, morbidity and causal connections. Then, finally, you will have proof.

So, heard of any experiments like this being performed recently? Of course you haven't - to do so would be ethically, legally and morally impossible. But in the absence of such ethically, legally and morally impossible experiments, the tobacco lobby for years and years and years was able to lie with impunity that there was no connection between their products and early death - after all, there was no "proof" that linked smoking to cancer & heart disease.

So, do we have "proof" of a smoking-cancer link? No, but we have millions of pages of data from thousands of studies that show overwhelming, indisputable evidence of positive correlations between smoking and disease.

Do we have "proof" of climate destabilization. No, but we have millions of pages of data from thousands of studies that show overwhelming, indisputable positive correlation between human activity and rapid climate change, along with masses of data showing that CO2 levels, temperature rises and instability, sea ice melting, collapsing glaciers, increases in extreme flooding and drought, rapid species shifts and on and on and on.

Basically, what it comes down to is credibility. On one hand, you have nearly every climate scientist, oceanographer, paleoclimatologist, glaciologist, biologist, atmospheric physicist, atmospheric chemist in the world, to say nothing of a host of other specialists, along with the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society and the national scientific academies of nearly every country in the world. On the other hand, you have Rush Limbaugh, George W. Bush, and a handful of scientists up to their eyeballs in fossil fuel industry money.

I know who my money's on, and if the clowns in your office can't tell the difference between bullshit and Baskin-Robbins, then piss on 'em from a considerable height.

[havocmom]

6. How many deaths from starvation when weather contributes to constant

crop failures? It won't be pretty.

[yardwork]

8. There's one big irony

If the global change follows any of the most likely models, then the United States and Europe will be hit hard by climate change. We'll lose our temperate climate and the ability to grow our own grain. The center of power will shift south to the regions we currently exploit. Human nature being what it is, I expect they will treat us as badly as we have treated them.

Of course, shrubby doesn't care. As he told a reporter, why should he worry about the future? He'll be dead, he said.

[mom cat]

10. Just look at the number of serious hurricanes this year, and we

still have Ivan on the way!

[SpiralHawk]

11. AWOL's sharp kOmmanD to his crack "science" team:

"This calls for another 20-year study. I order that you koMMence this study sometime in the next decade or so. Then we will have "The Truth" -- something a future Administration can ponder and actionize if necessary.

"If it turns out that Climate Disaster is worthy of future imperial konsideration, then always remember that it is because Bill Clinton had sex in the oval office.

"This is an officiAl orderiztion of eXecutive 'PRIVILEGE.' Make it so."

- yr. beloved, esteemed and legendary kOmmadante-en-Jeffe, Arbusto II

[shanti]

12. heat waves

they're right about that, especially those of northern european descent. we can't tolerate extreme heat. my biracial son will be able to tho;-)

[Matilda]

15. Note the prat in the brown suit in the box on the left.

John Howard, defending the indefensible - Australia's refusal to
sign the Kyoto Agreement. Because we make money mining and selling
coal. Can't interfere with business's right to make money, no
matter what the cost in human life.

[rooboy]

18. Come on now, Matilda...

coal is our future, remember? We're just going to bury that nasty CO2 underground... :eyes: