EPA: U.S. Summers to Get Hotter and Deadlier Due to Climate Change

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Washington Post

Climate change will have a "substantial" impact on human health in the coming decades, making wildfires and hurricanes more likely, cooking up more smog, and making summer heat waves longer, hotter and deadlier, according to a new report today from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The report details how rising temperatures could slowly but significantly shift the rhythms of nature that Americans are used to -- with disruptive, sometimes even deadly, consequences. In the West, it found, changing weather patterns could thin the snowpacks that feed rivers, with repercussions for both hydroelectric dams and water supplies.

And, in Washington and other Eastern cities, it found that a warmer climate will likely mean summers that start earlier, last longer and produce more periods of sustained heat....

The report was prepared under the EPA's leadership, but released by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, which coordinates research among several federal agencies.

Its conclusions are noteworthy in part because the Bush administration has resisted the conclusion that climate change will be definitively bad for human health. Last year, for instance, the White House refused to open an e-mail from the EPA forwarding a formal finding that climate change would endanger public welfare....

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/17/AR2008071701557.html?nav%3Dhcmodule&sub=AR

[Faygo Kid]

1. That's why I'm retiring to Traverse City in three to eight years.

Water, woods, wineries in northern lower Michigan.

And that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what is offered there. See ya.

[Kolesar]

7. Scratch

Mosquito bites, black fly bites, no-see-um.

Hey, I vacationed at Sleeping Bear Dunes in July a few years ago. I could dig living by the water.

[End Of The Road]

15. I think Michigan has a great future ahead --

Lotsa water, beautiful summers.

Hey, are the woolen mills still in Traverse City, or did they get outsourced?

[Double T]

2. The mass extinction of life on earth has begun. The addition of..........

more than 3 billion NEW potential SUV drivers being added to the existing 6+ billion already destroying the planet, should decimate ALL life by the end of this century.

[Skittles]

3. I just saw the 7 day outlook here: 99 99 99 99 99 99 99

that's actually pretty good for Texas in July - I would have expected to see triple digits in there

[lutefisk]

10. It's going to be almost 10 trillion degrees in Texas 7 days from now?!?!

Holy crap!

Or am I reading that wrong? :shrug:

[Sodbuster]

11. The good news is that it will be a dry heat........

[lutefisk]

12. I don't mind that so much. But 11 trillion and the AC goes on!...n/t

edit: oops, just realized this is LBN. I probably shouldn't be taking up bandwidth with wisecracks... save that for the less serious forums...

[Uncle Joe]

4. Here is a link to a transcript of Al Gore's speech regarding the climate crisis, our energy needs

and national security.

http://z8.invisionfree.com/Al_Gore_Support/index.php?s=3f95ea84ad93f2a5d620c6fb9b131f86&showtopic=9926&view=getnewpost

Thanks for the thread, DeepModem Mom.

Kicked and recommended.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. And thanks for the link, Uncle Joe! nt

[madrchsod]

6. i think everyone`s figuring that out now

the middle of july in northern illinois is as hot and humid as it used to be in middle of august. the rock river is higher than anytime i`ve seen this late in july and we are expecting at least five days of rain in the rock river basin starting saturday through next wed/thursday.

it`s getting hotter and wetter.....

[Canuckistanian]

8. It's been hot and rainy here in eastern Canada

I'm sure we broke some records for precipitation so far this year.

Massive snowstorms in March, inundations of rain in May and June. Had a flood in our basement during ONE STORM in June which lasted about 20 minutes.

Birds returning WAY too early (saw my first robin in Feb.)

This isn't normal.

[JeanGrey]

9. We had a horrible summer last year but I can report a lovely

one this year in Atlanta. Still going to the 60's at night and mostly 80's.

[Mudoria]

14. The same in NC too. Been somewhere around 2.2 degrees

cooler the weathermen were saying last week. After what last August brought us I'm a little leery of the month but if it follows the same temp patterns as June and July have it will be bearable in 2008.

[JeanGrey]

16. I expect to have some more 90's weather and possible even

close to 100 SOMETIME in August. I mean this is Atlanta after all. But last winter we had a cooling trend and also this summer.

[defendandprotect]

13. And White House still trying to screw the info . . .

A former EPA official told a House panel this week that senior administration officials and several Cabinet members supported regulating the emissions before the White House changed course and barred the EPA from concluding that they endanger public welfare.

[Muttocracy]

17. link and some excerpts from the report

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3635816&mesg_id=3635816