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Wait, global warming is already killing people ?? Weather-related events has killed people since the beginning of times, but I was under the impression global

by bsaul 4y ago

Wait, global warming is already killing people ?? Weather-related events has killed people since the beginning of times, but I was under the impression global warming was still about predictions of catastrophies.

wizofaus 4y ago
The "air pollution" part is measurable enough but it's obviously impossible to attribute the death of any individual that was caused by, say, a natural disaster or extreme heat event bolstered by global warming to any particular source of carbon emissions. Especially because you can very reasonably argue that those carbon emissions were a by-product of providing the energy needed to maintain first world standards of living, including the medical care etc that comes with it (I would totally agree that if we shut down all fossil-fuel- based energy generation tomorrow, it would result in significant excess deaths - far more than would be saved. Of course if you extend the period over which you count such deaths - say, to the next 50 or 100 years - the reverse is likely to be true, especially considering how much the earth's population is likely to increase in the next couple of decades).
411111111111111 4y ago
No, global warming is not about prediction. A consequence of a higher global temperature is that the frequency of natural disasters will increase and their severity will ne amplified, but that's not the same as predicting anything. An argument can be made that it's already killing people, as both frequency and severely of fires, heat waves, draughts, floods, etc has significantly gotten worse within the last 20 years. That doesn't mean that all deaths to natural disasters can be attributed to global warming for obvious reasons, but logic dictates that by increasing the severity of the event, at least some of the harm can be attributed to climate change. Singling anyone out is gonna be impossible however. For the record: the increased frequency and magnitude of disasters is a pretty tame side effect of global warming. There are much bigger long time issues for farming, biodiversity and toxicity in water. https://climate.ec.europa.eu/climate-change/consequences-climate-change_en https://climate.ec.europa.eu/climate-change/consequences-cli...

by bsaul 4y ago

wizofaus 4y ago

The "air pollution" part is measurable enough but it's obviously impossible to attribute the death of any individual that was caused by, say, a natural disaster or extreme heat event bolstered by global warming to any particular source of carbon emissions. Especially because you can very reasonably argue that those carbon emissions were a by-product of providing the energy needed to maintain first world standards of living, including the medical care etc that comes with it (I would totally agree that if we shut down all fossil-fuel- based energy generation tomorrow, it would result in significant excess deaths - far more than would be saved. Of course if you extend the period over which you count such deaths - say, to the next 50 or 100 years - the reverse is likely to be true, especially considering how much the earth's population is likely to increase in the next couple of decades).

411111111111111 4y ago

No, global warming is not about prediction. A consequence of a higher global temperature is that the frequency of natural disasters will increase and their severity will ne amplified, but that's not the same as predicting anything. An argument can be made that it's already killing people, as both frequency and severely of fires, heat waves, draughts, floods, etc has significantly gotten worse within the last 20 years. That doesn't mean that all deaths to natural disasters can be attributed to global warming for obvious reasons, but logic dictates that by increasing the severity of the event, at least some of the harm can be attributed to climate change. Singling anyone out is gonna be impossible however. For the record: the increased frequency and magnitude of disasters is a pretty tame side effect of global warming. There are much bigger long time issues for farming, biodiversity and toxicity in water. https://climate.ec.europa.eu/climate-change/consequences-climate-change_en https://climate.ec.europa.eu/climate-change/consequences-cli...