Many of you have probably heard by now of the UN. Report saying that “global warming is killing 300,000 people a year”. There’s a Times Online Story (h/t to Gary Boden) about it today that has some startling admissions. Here are some excerpts:
Climate change is already killing 300,000 people a year in a “silent crisis” that is seriously affecting hundreds of millions more, an influential humanitarian group warned today.
A report by the Global Humanitarian Forum, led by Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General, says that the effects of climate change are growing in such a way that it will have a serious impact on 600 million people, almost ten per cent of the world’s population, within 20 years. Almost all of these will be in developing countries.
“Climate change is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time, causing suffering to hundreds of millions of people worldwide,” Mr Annan said.
“As this report shows, the first hit and worst affected are the world’s poorest groups, and yet they have done least to cause the problem.”
//
The report claims that 90 per cent of the deaths are related to gradual environmental degradation caused by a warming climate, which exacerbates existing threats — mainly malnutrition, diarrhoea and malaria. The rest are said to be the result of weather disasters.
But here is the kicker (emphasis mine):
Mr Annan said the report could never be as rigorous as a scientific study, but said: “We feel it is the most plausible account of the current impact of climate change today.”
Translation: “close enough for government work” (click for definition)
Worse, the U.N. didn’t even do the report themselves. The farmed it out:
The research was carried out by Dalberg Global Advisers, a consultancy firm, who collated all existing statistics on the human impacts of climate change. The report acknowledges a “significant margin of error” in its estimates.
But it is good enough for the MSM to use to scare the crap out of everybody and guilt the gullible into “action”.
‘Bogus’, doesn’t even begin to describe this political ploy.
For a real report, using real data, reflecting the real world situation, please read these reports by WUWT contributor Indur Goklany:
Going Down: Death Rates Due to Extreme Weather Events
How the IPCC Portrayed a Net Positive Impact of Climate Change as a Negative
Wrong: World Health Organization claims that health goes down as carbon goes up
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source article condensed: “Won’t somebody think of the children!”
[snip – sorry]
Every week the mainstream media floods the newswires with perilous climate change predictions intended to spur the masses into taking drastic action either through fear or guilt. The actions suggested usually require massive amounts of money to be given as aid to developing nations to help them ‘cope with global warming’ and ‘develop green technologies’. Meanwhile, here in the so-called ‘rich nations’ we must concede generations of development and drastically change our lifestyle through voluntary measures suggested by guilt-ridden environmentalists, such as switching to a vegan diet or installing ‘green products’ into one’s home that are typically far too expensive for most low and middle income families budgets. And soon these changes will more-or-less be forced upon the populous as currently being drafted in congress is a climate change bill that would tax anything and everything that produces carbon emissions.
It is my belief that people cannot fully grasp the full breadth of what the green movement has become. They’re not about saving the rainforest or the polar bears, per say, as much as they are in the business of installing a new word order. A socialistic world government full of entitlements for the many that have never strived for achievement given to by the few that have. The green movement has manipulated their way to prominence using fear of calamity and guilt of consumption with the media perpetrating their every word. For example, a google news search on ‘climate change’ yielded 42,972 articles over the last one week period but ‘North Korea’ yielded a mere 39,765. Please keep in mind that North Korea detonated a nuclear bomb this week and launched -‘tested’- half a dozen surface-to-air missiles that take flight paths over Japan. They also renounced a 50+ year old truce with South Korea and threatened war. There are many other examples of factions coming to power through trepidation of the people and manipulation of the press, but they usually result in totalitarian dictatorships that generations of free people fought, and died, against but ultimately defeated.
Continue reading at Skeptic’s Corner
The most plausible account for the report is that the UN is completely off its trolley. And so is the profoundly moronic and disingenuous MSM.
But then we already know that…
Don’t worry. They will make up for the missing bodies with The Great Leap Backwards.
The Global Humanitarian Forum (GHF) headed by Annan, which produced this report, is filled with UN people. They are trying to get a global carbon tax to fund the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs). See this review of the “Human Impact” report: http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/HumanImpact.htm
Be sure to read the section at the end on the GHF itself and their goals for funding the MGDs.
Lies and half truths and obfuscation, but not a lot of science.
Then I read the papers:
“Sometimes, the most effective protest crosses the boundaries of law. That does not mean activists should be free to commit crimes just to draw attention to good causes. Rather, there are times when direct action can actually change the law, nudging it into closer alignment with what the protester sees as natural justice.”
And this:
“It so happens that the ideal of saving the world from climate change is a noble one. But the theoretical argument that direct action is justified in the name of a greater good leads on to morally complex terrain. It can be deployed by all sorts of zealots who think their cause trumps the law.”
source; http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/31/kingsnorth-six-environmental-activists
So lies, half truths, obfuscation and now breaking the law(and getting away with it)- What next God? -perhaps I sit on the wrong side of the fence.
Tom (dismayed).
Philip_B (19:36:48)
This area includes my city of birth, Melbourne, which has a population of well over 3 million – more than my present hometown of Montreal, QC.
There is no doubt that the state of Victoria has been in a real drought since 1999.
Explanations welcomed!
The Daily Telegraph uncritically printed a report about this, and i just emailed this letter to them (included below). In 2007 they printed three of my letters, one about Gore and climate change. As I twice threatened to lodge a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission about misleading climate change reports, I’m probably on their black list and they won’t print it – actually, they’re unlikely to print anything that remotely criticises AGW. Still, I thought I’d go through the motions….
Letter to Daily Telegraph:
The report (30th May, page 11) which claims that 300,000 people
are killed every year by climate change is little more than political
pseudo science. Roger A. Pielke, a respected expert on the effects of
climate change, called it “a methodological embarrassment” and said
“it will harm the cause for action on both climate change and
disasters because it is so deeply flawed.”
The report ignores the fact that more people may be killed simply
because populations have grown in regions prone to extreme weather.
In reality, since 1920 the number of people killed by extreme weather
events such as storms or heat waves has been steadily falling. The
NOAA measurement of hurricane intensity shows clearly there is no
trend that corresponds with climate change and indeed the trend has
been falling during the last decade.
In short, as Pielke has pointed out, there is no credible evidence that
climate change has killed a single person. The truth may be the exact
opposite. I believe we have been incredibly lucky to have lived during
a period of modest warming, but it may be coming to an end.
Mankind has always prospered when the world was warmer, perfect
examples being the Roman and Medieval periods. It’s when the world
gets colder that people starve and civilisations fail.
At last we finally have a solution to AGW – let the UN handle it.
Given their lack of success in reigning in petty dictators like my personal favorite RG Mugabe who personally accounts for at least a few thousand deaths a year, (not counting 5 million who currently suffer from food shortage or the tens of thousands who die from lack of basic health care as a direct result of his actions) I think we are assured of a lack of swift and decisive action.
On thing we are assured of is a lot of hot air emanating from the UN!!!
At least China will ensure non-action in much the same way as they ensure non-action when ever their interests are threatened.
Goodness me – who would have thought they could have been our allies?
When will we reach the tipping point where the overwhelming evidence against global/climate change or as it is now being titled in Australia ‘reduce our carbon footprint’ will be put to an end to this nonsense.
Sorry for the off-topic post, but what about this global dimming phenomenon?
I fell on a rather dramatic and scaremongering video production they call a “documentary”, from Nova called “Dimming the Sun”
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=Global+Warming+-+Dimming+the+Sun&aq=f
What’s up with that? What counter-influence it could have on any possible global warming? What synergy could it have with the incrased cosmic radiation background resulting from low solar activity?
OT Gore lied to Congress…
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/04/shocker-snake-oil-salesman-junk.html
Instead of being rude about the UN and has-been Kofi Anan, I suggest your readers look at the report. It’s a hilariously incompetent marketing digest of scientific-sounding non sequiturs, based on some out-of-the-air calculations by the insurance giant Munich-Re.
Soot is a greenhouse gas; a third of the world is in danger from climate change, according to a report whose authors say they nothing about climate change. Even the photo credits are rubbish. The cover photo is described as: “Elderly woman looking after her cow on top of a large dyke”. There’s no cow,and no large dyke. Just a woman in a sari apparently battling rising sea levels with her umbrella.
Do read it; it’s too good to miss. Someone should do an anthology of best bits.
I saw this on CNN international they introduced the report and then went to the weather man who spoke about recent bad weather events from around the world. No explanation how it relates to climate change just a report on weather. It would be a real story if there were no bad weather in the world.
I think it worthy of note whenever the MSM publishes something even obliquely critical of the whole AGM / CO2 scam, so please all do have a look at this: The great carbon credit con which appears in today’s (UK) Sunday Mail Live Magazine.
The Mail ‘papers both have columnists (such as Richard Littlejohn) who are very much on the sceptic side, but in general they publish the AGW propaganda without comment just like all the rest. To actually print a long report on a real journalistic investigation is quite a step out of the box, even if it doesn’t directly try to debunk AGW as such. Please do have a read.
The most likely cause of death due to AGW today is malnutrition and starvation secondary to the increased use of corn as a supplement to gasoline. The ethanol being produced from the grain is using up foodstores and driving up corn prices and making supply limited.
And for what? Does it really decrease GHG??? Nope. More liberal environmental good intentions that are paving there way to hell…
Unfortunately, between the ideologically-motivated political elites in the Western world who are pushing the ‘climate change’ program, and the business elites who have jumped on the bandwagon and now stand to profit from it, it doesn’t look like any amount of contrary evidence will avail.
It’s now not a scientific question, but a political one. Unless major political parties in the USA, UK, France, Australia, Italy, Germany, etc. stand up and challenge the socialists who are running away with the ball, there will be no stopping them.
The Republicans in the USA have been no help. During the last presidential campaign, the Republican candidate (McCain) had his own ‘cap-and-trade’ legislation already proposed. Even Newt Gingrich sat down with Nancy Pelosi and made a ‘climate change’ commercial. Until the leaders of the party wise up (I’m assuming the Democrats are beyond hope) and realize that they and the American people are being sold a bill of goods, there will be no ‘tipping point’.
I have sent a letter to Mitt Romney urging him to take the lead in opposing ‘carbon’ legislation, but neither he nor his staff have even shown me the courtesy of an acknowledgement.
At this point, the only chance is for the people to convince their elected representatives that support for ‘climate change’ legislation will not have public support. The place to start is with the current ‘energy bill’ that has already passed a House committee. Call your Congressman.
/Mr Lynn
[snip -OT]
Only Truth,
Our Corn “carryover” this year was 1.7 Billion Bushels. This is up 300 Million Bushels from last year, and one of the highest on record.
Which do you think is the most likely to cause “starvation?” A Two Cent rise in the cost of a daily ration of corn, or a Two Dollar rise in the cost of a gallon of gasoline? Yeah, me too.
At first glance, Mauna Loa doesn’t seem like a good location for a CO2 monitor…An active volcano situated on a rather “carbon-rich” island. Hawai’i is the land of “Vog”…Volcanic smog and lush tropical forests on the eastern part of the Big Island. Although large parts of Hawai’i are actually considered to have a Maritime Desert climate.
But the reason is relatively simple…There was already an observatory there. The CO2 is sampled from air that is above the Boundary Layer; ostensibly free from surface effects.
The Keeling Curve has the longest history of CO2 continuous measurements; but over the past 50 years a network of similar stations has become active. They all show roughly the same pattern of increasing CO2.
50 years is not a long time period…And the CO2 measurements carry no definitive anthropogenic fingerprints. It’s a reasonable assumption that some of the CO2 increase is anthropogenic; but there’s no really accurate way to quantify the natural vs. anthropogenic components.
“” tokyoboy (18:39:16) :
Just Want Truth… (17:34:06) :
>Keith (13:37:59) :
>Michael Crichton on DDT””
March 7, 2005
http://www.studentsandleaders.org/la/project/pressrelease.pdf
Added to his web site March 16, 2005
http://www.crichton-official.com/videos.html
&
http://www.crichton-official.com/video-studentsandleaders-question3.html
—————————————————————–
p.s. click around the internet you and can find just about anything in a couple minutes
Ho Hum,
300,000 deaths ’caused’ by global warming.
Approximately 5 Billion lives ‘saved’ by the increased use of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution.
The current carrying capacity of the planet is a direct consequence of fossil fuel use.
Fossil fuel use has so far frustrated the fears of Thomas Malthus.
Who really wishes to be the agent of the theories of Malthus coming true ?
Overenthusiastic restraint in the use of (or pricing of) fossil fuels will kill billions.
Deal with the genuine disadvantages of fossil fuel use such as non CO2 pollution and resource depletion by all means available but to go further than that involves the prospect of the genocide of a large proportion of humanity in favour of a speculative utopian world view.
Others tried that approach and were found wanting by the death rate in all those nations which tried it. Stalinist Russia, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Mao’s China and others.
Must we really re-tread past failures but on a global scale ?
Learn from the errors of the 20th Century. Do not repeat them on a global scale in the 21st.
” It’s a reasonable assumption that some of the CO2 increase is anthropogenic;”
I’m not sure it is a reasonable assumption.
If we could magically remove all the CO2 man has produced from the atmosphere then within a few months (I guess) it would be back because every breaking wave, every bursting bit of sea foam would give out CO2 till it had recovered to today’s equilibrium.
With all due respect, I cannot think of a more corrupt organization than the U.N. This is just another one of the examples as to why this is a statement of fact.
Global warming is a fairy tale. Ask any scientist work their weight.