Slashdot Mirror
Risks To Human Health Will Accelerate As Climate Changes, White House Warns (washingtonpost.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Washington Post: More deaths from extreme heat. Longer allergy seasons. Increasingly polluted air and water. Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks spreading farther and faster. Those are among the health risks that could be exacerbated by global warming coming decades, the Obama administration warned in a new report Monday. The study, more than 300 pages long and several years in the making, focuses on what the White House has described as one of the gravest threats to the nation: major health problems associated with climate change. It details direct effects, such as the potential for worsening air quality to trigger thousands more premature deaths from respiratory problems or an uptick in annual deaths from crushing heat waves. While every American could be affected, administration officials said Monday, the brunt of the harm is most likely to fall disproportionately on the most vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women, children, the poor, the elderly, minorities, immigrants and people with disabilities.
Has already hurt us in the last 7 years.
Of all the things that we need to be warned about, the White House is effectively stating the dangers we would have... by simply living in the tropics.
Essentially, they have basically said that having flowers and green plants for longer during the year is a problem. Hell, that's why I moved south to begin with. If I can have tropical weather by the time I'm retirement age, I won't have to migrate to Florida when I have blue hair!
is what I think they meant to call climate change. Sounds like a lawyer made it sound nice and someone else's fault. Greedy lying fucks.
"global warming" is "described as one of the gravest threats to the nation"
It always amuses me that to a typical American, everything seems to only be about America.
The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
No, I'm angry because an AC is inventing a lie to try to discredit a branch of science that doesn't tell him what he wants to hear.
The universe doesn't owe us a fucking thing. It doesn't modify the effects of CO2 to protect your stock portfolio or keep the price of gas cheap. It doesn't give one flying fuck about any economic system. CO2 has the effects it has because that's the way it fucking is, and it is irrelevant how it makes you are the moron who made the original post feel. The universe does not care about cheap energy.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
My liberal or conservative viewpoint aside, I just do not believe this is the biggest threat to our nation.
Assuming the predicted changes do actually fall in the middle some where, neither worst case scenario nor least change, but somewhere in between, I'm sure America will be one of the least affected countries.
Let's assume that every future hurricane is a full category rating above the storms force pre-climate change.
Meteorological forecasts have improved tenfold in the last 25 yrs alone, and there is no reason to think our ability to predict, and prepare for, even the worst storms will not continually improve.
A category 4 hurricane is much less likely to devastate a region today than even a cat. 2or 3 hurricane would likely do just 30 or so years ago. So in that respect, we are probably not in much more danger than a short time ago, still better than a century ago.
As far as increased illnesses, same thing but much better off than pre-industrial age with the life expectancy of 50-60 yrs in the most advanced countries of the age.
The loss of coastal land.....this is an annoyance at the worst. Granted, a major annoyance for coastal and port cities, but as the rise of the oceans will be so gradual live's will not be in immediate danger, just major immigration toward higher land with decades to prepare for those affected.
But also opportunity, as some in the northern lands have been optimistic about the change in their regions noting a somewhat longer growing season already taking affect, allowing a possible increase in agriculture, similar to what those living to the South have experienced for the last centuries.
I am not saying that there will be no change, I am saying that change has been the normal for millennia, and yes, it seems it will be quicker than we have experienced, and will bring challenges, certainly, but these scientists all agree (at least those who are realistic about the Earths history) the planet has been much warmer than the worst predictions, man did not cause global warming, rather we have sped up a natural occurrence, and global cooling, historically, has very likely caused the extinctions of more species than global warming
At one time, most scientists believe, the planet was much warmer than anyone is suggesting it may be within even 2-300 years of fossil fuel burning.
Most of the land covered planet was a tropical paradise with life thriving so abundant the vegetation did not have time to turn to compost, burying upon itself for millions of years until eventually turning to oil and coal
I'm not going to respond to your strawman, to humor it would only help derail the actual conversation that most people try to have.
Destabilized climates can increase the strain on local and regional economies and make it easier for the scum of humanity to get a nice grip on desperate or angry populations. Climate change can only help spread the influence of terrorists and other evil organizations.
Rising temperatures will cause certain plants and animals to either move closer to the poles or die off. This may not seem like a big deal, and at a reasonable time scale it isn't really, ecosystems can adapt over long periods of time. Especially for people way up north. However, the speed at which the temperature could shoot up will not offer that window of transition for all life. This will also effect marine life. For every migration, there will be ecosystems that no longer match up correctly and species reaching dead ends they can't get around. Then you factor in the changing rain patterns... Droughts in places that aren't used to it, flooding in others. Human beings are NOT going to enjoy these changes, as crops will stop being as predictable and large regions may find themselves without cash crops they used to enjoy And those who hunt for food might not have much luck in that area anymore if their normal food start to move away en masse or die off. Granted, your family will likely have the money to import all the food they might need for a while, but for the poorest humans on the planet, this can be a pretty grim look forward.
I could get into ocean acidification (which is definitely NOT good, considering how much of our planet depend on small marine life to hold up the food chain and absorb CO2 from the air), rising sea levels that will devastate poor people and nations that can't afford big expensive walls to keep the sea at bay, all the mass migrations that will make Syria look like a fucking cakewalk, the occasional more powerful hurricane/typhoons, the slowing down of ocean currents that drag warm water into Europe, and the massive feedback loops from natural gas melting out of the permafrost and shrinking ice caps reflecting less sunlight etc (which is when things would REALLY get interesting)... but I don't know where you set your threshold for 'alarmist'. These things aren't just the ramblings of fear mongers, these are real and possible dangers based on pretty solid science that NEED to be brought forward. The reason why they may look like warnings is because, frankly, they should be. For a rough analogy, when there's a pretty good chance of hurricane hitting my area I damn well want to hear about it. Even if the chances that It'll kill me are very low and it's a week or so away, the threat is definitely worth getting a little worked up over.
Indeed, some people do choose to cry about the falling sky and employ hyperbole either for dramatic effect or just to further some stupid agenda. But if you're only going to concentrate on the loudmouths and overly comfortable politicians, it means you ignore the scientists, citizens, and other government workers who actually want to do something useful despite being held back by people with vested interests in keeping us on oil and coal. We don't need to be intentionally alarming to get the point across, but if we don't state the urgency now, eventually there might actually be cause for sirens going off and there won't be much anyone can do about it.
Al Gore
DRINK!
When I see Obama cancel even one of his tropical vacations with his entire staff because Air Force One uses more fuel in one trip that I will use my whole life, then I will take those worthless "White House Warnings" about climate change a little more seriously.
No, you won't.
Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
Delendae sunt RIAA, MPAA et Windoze
Women and Children Hit Hardest!
The trope that keeps on giving.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
And the highly trained scientists investigating the issue have never thought of any of that because random nitwit on slashdot is smarter AND hipper than any of THEM.
And now consider ocean acidification and the ability of phytoplankton that create the oxygen you breath to do their work. It's not just about warming. And its not about geological changes that the Earth has time to respond to. It is about humans changing things so fast we create positive feedback that natural systems cannot counter. We have now officially entered the Anthropocene - meaning that there is so much evidence laid down in the Earth since the 1950's that will persist for Gigayears.
Sadly for you, winning PR war won't protect you from the facts.
I'll give you a true verifiable fact, killing babies and selling their body parts are a greater danger to people and society than this drivel. Yet how driven to tears and hysteria are you by that fact?
Oh right you are a liberal, you rejoice in it. The stench of hypocrisy rises to the point of being stinking blind.