White House Buries Report on Possible Climate Change Death Toll

My, my. Will wonders never cease? The Bush administration has once again stepped in to keep important information out of public hands because of their own selfish needs. Information that could save thousands of lives and keep catastrophic damage from occurring to the planet. Is anyone surprised?

US government scientists wrote a report detailing the harmful impact that climate change could have upon the human population, which included a high death toll from heat waves, fires, disease and smog. The 149-page report was prepared as part of a response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling under the Clean Air Act, which found that the EPA must regulate greenhouse gases unless there was not a scientific reason to do so. The Bush Administration stifled the report, and environmental activists believe it’s because they don’t want to regulate greenhouse gases.

From The Telegraph:

The report lays out for the first time the scientific case for the grave risks that global warming poses to people, and to the food, energy and water on which society depends.

“Risk (to human health, society and the environment) increases with increases in both the rate and magnitude of climate change,” scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency said. Global warming, they wrote, is “unequivocal,” and humans are to blame.

It suggests that extreme weather events and diseases carried by ticks and other organisms could kill more people as temperatures rise and allergies could worsen because climate change could produce more pollen. Smog, a leading cause of respiratory illness and lung disease, could become more severe in many parts of the country. At the same time, global warming could mean fewer illnesses and deaths due to cold.

The Bush Administration has worked to discourage a connection between public health and climate change, because it would compel them to regulate greenhouse gases. Lawmakers are persistently lobbied by corporations who fear that emissions regulations would hurt their business.

The bottom line is, we can’t trust the Bush camp to do anything right, so we’ve just got to wait for them to leave. Only 5 months left!

Link [The Telegraph]
Photo credit: Eric Gay

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