Global Warming in the UK
Global Warming Effects Could Kill 10,000 in the UK by 2012 - 2/12/08
A report released by the British government warned the country's National Health System to expect thousands more deaths and complications from heatwaves, malaria, and contaminated water as global warming effects progress in the next five years.
The biggest danger to health, and the most likely to occur, is a major heatwave. The report predicts a heatwave will occur by 2012, causing between 3,000 and 10,000 deaths. Scientists put the odds of a heatwave in the south-east of England by that time at around 1 in 40. The report says: "In terms of conventional thinking about risks to health, 1 in 40 is high." A French heatwave in 2003 caused the deaths of an estimated 14,000 people, most of them elderly.
In addition to heatwaves and potential malaria outbreaks, the report suggests that deaths and health complications related to air pollution will also rise as global warming affects the pollution levels in Britain. They estimate up to 1,500 more deaths and hospital admissions related to air pollution each year, mostly related to asthma attacks and other breathing problems. Skin cancer deaths are also predicted to rise with increased exposure to sunlight.
There are some other odd side effects of the warmer summers the report predicts will be one of the effects of global warming in the near future. Warmer summers also mean more cases of food poisoning. The report predicts an almost 15% increase in food poisoning cases, working out to about 14,000 extra food poisoning cases every year.
Global Warming? It's Natural, Say Experts - 9/13/07
Authors Dennis Avery and Fred Singer looked at the work of more than 500 scientists and argue that these experts are doubtful the phenomenon is caused by man-made greenhouse gases.
Climate change is much more likely to be part of a cycle of warming and cooling that has happened regularly every 1,500 years for the last million years, they say.
Even if our climate is changing, it is not all bad, they suggest, because past cold periods have killed twice as many people as warm periods. Mr Avery said: "Not all of these researchers who doubt man-made climate change would describe themselves as global warming sceptics but the evidence in their studies is there for all to see.
In the current warming cycle, they say there is evidence that storms and droughts have been fewer and milder; corals, trees, birds, mammals and butterflies have adapted well; and sea levels are not rising significantly.
The pair spent months analysing scientific reports for their book, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years, to counter claims made by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore in his film An Inconvenient Truth.
Global Warming 'is Three Times Faster than Worst Predictions' - 6/3/07
Global warming is accelerating three times more quickly than feared, a series of startling, authoritative studies has revealed.
They have found that emissions of carbon dioxide have been rising at thrice the rate in the 1990s. The Arctic ice cap is melting three times as fast - and the seas are rising twice as rapidly - as had been predicted.
News of the studies - which are bound to lead to calls for even tougher anti-pollution measures than have yet been contemplated - comes as the leaders of the world's most powerful nations prepare for the most crucial meeting yet on tackling climate change.
The issue will be top of the agenda of the G8 summit which opens in the German Baltic resort of Heiligendamm on Wednesday, placing unprecedented pressure on President George Bush finally to agree to international measures.
The significance is that this is much faster than even the highest scenario outlined in this year's massive reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - and suggests that their dire forecasts of devastating harvests, dwindling water supplies, melting ice and loss of species are likely to be understating the threat facing the world.
