Climate disaster deaths double

[GliderGuider]

Climate disaster deaths double

Climate-related disasters killed 21,000 people in the first nine months of this year, more than double the number in 2009, the humanitarian organisation Oxfam says.

The events of 2010 are in line with expectations detailed in a 2007 report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which noted that more severe heat waves, wildfires, floods and rising sea levels were likely.

Oxfam said floods in Pakistan inundated about one-fifth of the country, killed 2000 people and affected 20 million, spreading disease and destroying homes, crops, roads and schools, with estimated damages of US$9.7 billion (NZ$13 billion).

In Russia, Oxfam said, temperatures exceeded the long-term average by 7.8 degrees C in July and August, and the daily death rate in Moscow doubled to 700. Some 26,000 wildfires destroyed 26 percent of wheat crops, prompting a ban on exports.

Residents of low-lying Tuvalu, where seas are rising by about 5 to 6 mm annually, find it hard to grow staple crops as salt water intrudes on farm fields, Oxfam reported. As a result, they are more reliant on imported processed foods to survive, according to the report.

The full report is available at: http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2010-11-29/climate-change-talks-following-record-year-extreme-weather

[Nederland]

1. Wow, that's a really small number

I would have thought it would be higher. Obviously climate related deaths are way down on the list of how people die. Far far lower than things like war, hunger, malaria, AIDS, etc.

[GliderGuider]

2. And the trends?

100% YOY increases - the windy crowd is ecstatic with numbers like that.

Remember, this is just deaths directly attributable to extreme weather events. Factor in weather-driven crop failures and you'll have the numbers you want in a few years.

[Nederland]

7. 100% YOY increases?

Over what time period? Do you have a source?

[GliderGuider]

8. My mistake. "Would be" ecstatic with numbers like that

if they could get them.

[jwirr]

3. Starvation could just as well be climate related as any other issue. nt

Crops fail because it is getting too hot, water is harder to get and other related climate issues.

[Gregorian]

4. It's documented that Ethiopan famine is directly related to global dimming.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/01/global-dimming/

[joshcryer]

5. Note that this is climate related, not pollution related, which coal and oil kill hundreds...

...of thousands every year.

[GliderGuider]

6. True that. And decarbonization is the answer to the whole mess. n/t