300,000 people across the world die every year as a result of global warming, according to a new report by the Global Humanitarian Forum. Human-influenced climate change is elevating the global death rates from illnesses including malaria, malnutrition and heat-related ailments, mostly by worsening flooding and droughts.
The report said that the lives of 325 million people were being seriously affected by global warming and that the number will double by 2030. It also stated that global warming is causing $125 billion in economic losses each year.
The report has met with criticism from some who question the methods used and say the conclusions are oversimplified.
From The New York Times:
Roger A. Pielke Jr., a political scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who studies disaster trends, said the forum’s report was “a methodological embarrassment” because there was no way to distinguish deaths or economic losses related to human-driven global warming amid the much larger losses resulting from the growth in populations and economic development in vulnerable regions. Dr. Pielke said that “climate change is an important problem requiring our utmost attention.” But the report, he said, “will harm the cause for action on both climate change and disasters because it is so deeply flawed.”
However, Soren Peter Andreasen, a social scientist at Dalberg Global Development Partners who supervised the writing of the report, defended it, saying that it was clear that the numbers were rough estimates. The report appeared aimed at world leaders, who will meet in Copenhagen in December to negotiate a new international climate treaty.
While the numbers may be rough, the message is important. Climate change is already impacting millions of people across the world, and it’s going to get worse. There’s no time to waste.
Link [The New York Times]
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