Hansen: Climate change is here — and worse than we thought

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Thank you Dr. Ugis Bickis! Cutz Cutz, CIH | Moderator, GlobalOccHyg List | http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalocchyg-list/ (on Yahoo Groups) | RSS Feed http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalocchyg-list/rss | http://tinyurl.com/GlobalOccHyg-List (on LinkedIn) NEW!AIHce 2013 MONTREAL, CANADA | May 18-23, 2013 | The Premier Conference & Expo for OEHSProfessionals | ‘The art + science ofprofessional judgment’ | Visit: http://www.aihce2013.orgDate: Sat, 4 Aug 2012 23:21:50 -0400Subject: Hansen: "Climate change is here — and worse than we thought"From: ubickis@...To: bickisu@...Here's (most of) a Washington Post (yesterday's) piece. Also (in full) at <http://bickisberzos.blogspot.ca/2012/08/klimata-parmainas-ir-tagad-un-sliktak.html>The NAS publication is to be released on Monday.Should create quite a stir.Climate change is here — and worse than we thought E. Hansen, (directs the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.)... My projections about increasing global temperature have been proved true. But I failed to fully explore how quickly that average rise would drive an increase in extreme weather.In a new analysis of the past six decades of global temperatures, which will be published Monday, my colleagues and I have revealed a stunning increase in the frequency of extremely hot summers, with deeply troubling ramifications for not only our future but also for our present.This is not a climate model or a prediction but actual observations of weather events and temperatures that have happened. ...Our new peer-reviewed study, published by the National Academy of Sciences, makes clear that while average global temperature has been steadily rising due to a warming climate (up about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the past century), the extremes are actually becoming much more frequent and more intense worldwide. ... The change is so dramatic that one face of the die must now represent extreme weather to illustrate the greater frequency of extremely hot weather events.This is the world we have changed, and now we have to live in it — the world that caused the 2003 heat wave in Europe that killed more than 50,000 people and the 2011 drought in Texas that caused more than $5 billion in damage. Such events, our data show, will become even more frequent and more severe.There is still time to act and avoid a worsening climate, but we are wasting precious time. We can solve the challenge of climate change with a gradually rising fee on carbon collected from fossil-fuel companies, with 100 percent of the money rebated to all legal residents on a per capita basis. This would stimulate innovations and create a robust clean-energy economy with millions of new jobs. It is a simple, honest and effective solution.The future is now. And it is hot.<http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/climate-change-is-here--and-worse-than-we-thought/2012/08/03/6ae604c2-dd90-11e1-8e43-4a3c4375504a_print.html>_____________________________________Your health and safety .... our priorityVotre santé et votre sécurité ... notre prioritéAnyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist BouldingI'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that Edison The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man Bernard ShawUÄ£is Bickis CIH,ROH,MEng,PhD Head, Science Section / Chef de la section scientifiqueClimate Change and Health Office / Bureau des changements climatiques et de la santéWACCB_SED_HECSB / BEACC_DSM_DGSESCHEALTH CANADA / SANTÉ CANADA -- AL: 4909C269 O. ave. Laurier Ave. W., suite 9-068Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 0K9Tel: 1.Fax: 1.Mob: 1.E-m / courr.: ugis.bickis@...<http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/contact/ewh-semt/hecs-dgsesc/ccho-bccs-eng.php><http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/contact/ewh-semt/hecs-dgsesc/ccho-bccs-fra.php><http://www.linkedin.com/pub/u%C4%A3is-bickis/50/562/281> |<http://www.mine.queensu.ca/People/faculty/UgisBickis.html>|<http://bickisberzos.blogspot.ca/> |<http://www.facebook.com/uib.lv.ca> |<http://www.myspace.com/586866198> |----------------------------------------------------------------- uÄ£is || higienists, pasaules mÄ“rogÄ || <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/u%C4%A3is-bickis/50/562/281> || <http://www.mine.queensu.ca/People/faculty/UgisBickis.html>|| <http://bickisberzos.blogspot.ca/> || <http://www.facebook.com/uib.lv.ca> || <http://www.myspace.com/586866198> || |END Forwarded by Cutz, CIH | Moderator, GlobalOccHyg List | http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalocchyg-list/ (on Yahoo Groups) | RSS Feed http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalocchyg-list/rss | http://tinyurl.com/GlobalOccHyg-List (on LinkedIn) NEW!AIHce 2013 MONTREAL, CANADA | May 18-23, 2013 | The Premier Conference & Expo for OEHSProfessionals | ‘The art + science ofprofessional judgment’ | Visit: http://www.aihce2013.org