White House: Global Warming Is Good For You

[jpak]

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/10/white-house-glo.html

Olivier Knox, Agence France Presse's man in the White House Press Corps, alerted me to a funny moment he wrote about today. One tenet of the White House's policy on climate change is, apparently, "What, me worry?"

On Wednesday, spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters that US experts were trying to determine "what are going to be the health benefits and the health concerns of climate change, of which there are many."

Asked to detail what the benefits would be, Perino replied: "Look, this is an issue where I'm sure lots of people would love to ridicule me when I say this."

"But it is true that many people die from cold-related deaths every winter. And there are studies that say that climate change in certain areas of the world would help those individuals," she added. "I'm not an expert."

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[Turbineguy]

1. It's one thing to have

an opinion, it's another to open your mouth.

[Viking12]

2. "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength."

[stuntcat]

3. "I'm not an expert."

oh really? you're not an expert? :eyes:

Now the same people who've denied for years we could change the thin climate will jump on the Benefits of Global Warming bandwagon!

[KarenS]

4. well,,,, she said something accurate in all that,,,,,

"I'm not an expert."

:eyes:

[XemaSab]

5. Let's look at the facts:

Between 1999 and 2003, an average of 447 people a year died from extreme heat in the US. An additional 241 people a year had hyperthermia listed as a contributing factor in their deaths, bringing the total number of people who die from heat in the US per year to 668. (40% of the people who died from heat were over age 65, sadly.)

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwR/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5529a2.htm

Between 1979 and 2002 an average of 689 deaths per year were attributed to hypothermia. (52% of these deaths were in people over the age of 65.)

http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5407a4.htm

So yes, the cold wins it by 21 people a year. :eyes:

One of the things that's missed in the numbers though is the fact that hypothermia can occur in temperatures as high as 60 degrees, while heat-related illnesses usually occur when temperatures get above 90. Therefore warming temperatures would likely increase the number of heat-related deaths without substantially lowering the number of cold-related deaths.