Thursday, October 15, 2009

International day of climate change and some effects of climate change

Join me at www.350.org
I recently received an email from 350.org/brighter planet saying that today, October 15, is Blog Action Day. They asked that I tell my readers that October 24 is an International Day of Climate Action and to ask that you organize an action, or attend an action in your area (there are two relatively near to me). These events are to spread the bit of info that scientists say that 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity and we are already over it and need to do take steps to lower it to below 350 ppm. I myself while believing people should do things to lower their effects on the environment am probably not going to go to one of the organized events.

There are many possible effects from climate change, who you ask will give you different answers as to what those changes are. Some people do not even believe that it is occurring. There is enough evidence and scientists that believe in it that I have no reason to doubt them. In that vein I read a summary of a report made by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research; Analyses of the effects of global change on human health and welfare and human systems. What this report boils down to is something that is obvious to just about anyone who puts a few seconds thought into it; namely that the poor, elderly, sick, and very young will suffer the most from climate change (often times called global warming). Those are the people who suffer the most from basically everything, so it should be absolutely no surprise that they would suffer the most.

Many things said in the report have been stated in many other
federal and international reports on the ill effects of climate change. Things like: Global warming is caused by greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels. At current emission levels, global temperatures are likely to rise by about 2 degrees by midcentury and about 7.5 degrees by the end of the century, according to an international panel of scientists.

It states that every region of the country will be hit by worse health from heat waves and drought. That all but a handful of states would have worse air quality and flooding. It predicts an increase in diseases spread by tainted food, bad water and bugs. Many of those very same effects can be seen from other causes besides climate change as well.

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