Climate Change=Death
It was 107 in Memphis yesterday—an all-time high. The heat that has gripped most of the South for the past week and a half has killed at least 37 people.
Riffing the massive earthquake yesterday in Peru (which left almost 450 people dead), Memphis’ mayor said, “This is pretty akin to a seismic event in the sense that there is no remedy, no solution that we here in this room can come up with that will take care of everybody.”
Meanwhile, Americans presided over the deaths of 250 people in Iraq, where we are busily fighting for the fossil fuel we need to fight.
Perhaps our efforts would be more constructively directed at halting climate change.
9 Responses to “Climate Change=Death”
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August 17th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
This war mainly serves as a distraction to keep the real threats like Global Warming off the mainstream news headlines.
August 20th, 2007 at 6:15 am
The comment of Memphis’s mayor is a total abdication of responsibility. Natural events rarely kill people outright. It’s usually a failure on our part to care for people. The reason people die in cold weather isn’t simply the weather itself, but because they couldn’t the heating. Clearly both are contributing factors, but we should be careful not to give the weather more agency than it deserves.
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:51 pm
i am scared we r going to die wat will happen plzn wb
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:25 am
Chrysta,
What’s going on right now does seem scary. That’s why lots of smart, committed people are working to make the world a better, safer place. Getting involved can make you feel a lot more powerful and less afraid…try it!
August 24th, 2007 at 8:54 am
We love the weather ! But some people say we are getting punished for our sins but the weather rocks !
August 31st, 2007 at 7:42 am
Ummm… climate change does not create earthquakes. Hot days, yes. But not earthquakes.
August 31st, 2007 at 9:08 am
I’ll agree climate change doesn’t cause earthquakes. Well, at least as far as we know. But given that thus far the impacts of climate change we are experiencing are VERY mild (compared to what we are looking at in coming years), who knows what dramatic shifts or chain reactions we will face from weather, tidal, and atmospheric patterns out of balance.
But – activities that cause climate change can also cause earthquakes. Deep mining and drilling practices can cause small seismic events as tunnels collapse – which are speculated to be able to trigger more substantial seismic events. Mine operators call these “bumps”, and are fairly common in major mine operations.
At the recent Utah mine collapse, it registered as a 3.9 on the Richter scale – largely due to it’s shallow depth (compared to naturally-occuring quakes). While the CEO of the mine company involved was quick to try to say that a “naturally occurring” earthquakes caused the collapse – it turned out to be the other way around.
And it’s not an accident – coal mining companies are notorious for cutting corners on safety and environmental regulations to make profit – yet another reason why coal is the enemy of the human race. (to quote David Roberts over at Grist)
-Matt
September 1st, 2007 at 8:37 am
I read and re-read comments and am amazed how some of us totally miss the point.. Weather is an energy system, there are far more factors involved in climatic change than carbon dioxide emissions by the humans on this planet. According to many scientists, we have not even gotten close to the warmest periods in our Earth’s history. Much of the press about the weather, the statements made by people with political aspirations, are just that, political aspirations.
I hear the comments to save the Planet, what are we saving the planet from? Our #1 problem is too many people, but if you address that issue, you get the religious folks up in arms that birth control is immoral. So we go on saying that we must do something to stop climate change. Perhaps climate change is the Earth’s way of dealing with our over population since we are incapable of doing so. So don’t say let’s save the Earth, let’s be honest and say let’s save our way of living, air conditioning and watering the desert(Las Vegas, Palm Springs, etc)and keep driving those gas(ethanol) guzzeling SUVs and motor homes.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:57 am
You right John earth is an energy system. I would’ve said the excact same thing if you didn’t say it. I think that if God made the earth he wouldn’t destroy it.