Date published: 2008/02/12
The BBC says:
The risk of a fatal heatwave in the UK within ten years is high, but overall global warming may mean fewer deaths due to temperature, a report says.
A seriously hot summer between now and 2017 could claim more than 6,000 lives, the Department of Health report warns.
But it also stresses that milder winters mean deaths during this time of year - which far outstrip heat-related mortality - will continue to decline.
The report is to help health services prepare for climate change effects.
...
Nevertheless, there is at present a 25% chance that by 2017 south-east England will see a severe heatwave which could cause 3,000 immediate deaths and the same number of heat-related deaths throughout the summer.While the authors acknowledge that predicting heatwaves and their effects is difficult, the risk was nonetheless "high".
However, even 6,000 deaths pales in comparison with the number of cold-related deaths, which in the UK currently average about 20,000 per year.
All fairly well known (although the figure of 6000 seems to be just plucked from the air). Of course this kind of story doesn't get too much play because we all have to repeat over and over that global warming is a bad, bad thing. Indeed, we should not even call it global warming, because some people (e.g. Northern Europeans) might think this is a good thing. We must call it climate change and repeat over and over that it is a bad, bad thing.
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").