Global Warming ‘Will Kill Thousands’ In UK

From the global warming hysterics at the UK’s Guardian:

Eggborough power station, near Selby.

Climate change soon could kill thousands in UK, says report

Andrew Sparrow, senior political correspondent

Tuesday February 12 2008

Climate change could lead to a heatwave in the south-east of England killing 3,000 people within the next decade, a Department of Health report said today.

It put the chances of a heatwave of that severity happening by 2017 at 25%.

Without preventative action, the report said that a nine-day heatwave, with temperatures averaging at least 27 degrees over 24 hours, would cause 3,000 immediate deaths, with another 3,350 people dying from heat-related conditions during the summer.

It predicted that there would be an increase in skin cancers due to increased exposure to sunlight and that, over the next half century, air pollution could lead to an extra 1,500 deaths and hospital admissions a year.

While malaria outbreaks were likely to remain rare, the report – Health Effects of Climate Change in the UK 2008 – said health authorities would need to be alert to the dangers posed by possible larger outbreaks of malaria in continental Europe.

The report, a follow-up to a study first published in 2002, said the latest modelling now suggested that temperatures would rise by between 2.5C and 3C over the next century. Periods of very cold weather would become less common, but heatwaves would become more common…

The report also said that new studies had confirmed the effects of increased exposure to ultra-violet light. “Skin cancers are expected to increase.”

On malaria, the report said there was a very slight chance that the disease could return to the south of England during the next 50 to 100 years. But outbreaks were likely to be rare and to involve a small number of people.

However, health authorities would have to be on the alert for the emergence of new, more deadly strains of mosquitoes in Europe and the possibility that they could arrive in wetland areas of Britain.

Warmer summers would also lead to an increase in food poisoning. The report predicted that there would be up to 14,000 more cases of food poisoning, including salmonella, a year – an increase of 14.5%.

Tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease were also likely to become more common, but that was more likely to be due to changes in land use than climate change.

Professor Robert Maynard, chairman of the expert panel that wrote the report, said: “Climate change is likely to be one of the major challenges that humanity faces this century. It is important that we assess the possible health impact and take any actions that could minimise the consequences.” …

In a foreward to the report, health minister Dawn Primarolo said the national health service would have to adapt to deal with the problems posed by climate change.

Measures would include: ensuring that hospitals were equipped to deal with the effects of heat, gales, and floods; developing local plans for heatwaves, gales and flooding; disaster preparation; and advising people how to adapt to climate change.

Hysteria is amusing, until somebody gets hurt. Or taxed.

Without preventative action, the report said that a nine-day heatwave, with temperatures averaging at least 27 degrees over 24 hours, would cause 3,000 immediate deaths, with another 3,350 people dying from heat-related conditions during the summer.

27 degrees Celsius is all of 80.6 degree Fahrenheit.

Moreover, one wonders how many people currently die of “exposure” in the UK each year? It is probably quite a few.

That number almost certainly more than who may die of heat prostration or malaria if the average temperature goes up a couple of degrees over the next hundred years.

It predicted that there would be an increase in skin cancers due to increased exposure to sunlight…

Why isn’t it just as likely that if the temperature goes up more people will avoid the sun — even mad dogs and Englishmen?

Anyway, lest we forget, the Vikings somehow managed to survive living on Greenland when it was warm enough to grow grapes.

By the way, the Eggborough power station featured in the photograph accompanying the article is the only coal-fired power station owned by British Energy.

All of their other power stations are environmentally friendly, non-carbon emitting nuclear power plants.

With enough nuclear power everyone could run their air conditioners all day long.

After all, Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet invented the concept of global warming to sell nuclear power to the British public after a series of devastating coal strikes.

 Update!

From BBC News:

Global warming ‘may cut deaths’

12 February 2008

The risk of a fatal heatwave in the UK within ten years is high, but overall global warming may mean fewer deaths due to temperature, a report says.

A seriously hot summer between now and 2017 could claim more than 6,000 lives, the Department of Health report warns.

But it also stresses that milder winters mean deaths during this time of year - which far outstrip heat-related mortality - will continue to decline.

The report is to help health services prepare for climate change effects.

A panel of scientific experts commissioned by the Department of Health and Health Protection Agency (HPA) has looked at the way the UK has responded to rising temperatures since the 1970s, and how the risks are likely to change.

While summers in the UK became warmer in the period 1971 - 2003, there was no change in heat-related deaths, but annual cold-related mortality fell by 3% as winters became milder - so overall fewer people died as a result of extreme temperatures…

Gee, how prescient we are.