Global warming facts to calm your sobbing children

No, global warming won’t kill you

Are you terrified by claims that global warming is an “existential threat”? That there will be a “great winnowing” and “mass deaths”? That we face “the collapse of our civilisations”? They are scare stories, don’t believe them. You are told to believe “the science” — well, here is some science you should believe — solid scientific facts that tell you global warming scares are empty. [NOTE: I’ve added mention of global, England and NZ temperatures. – RT]

Calm yourself — you are not in danger

• • • You are unlikely to die of a climate-related disaster. Your risk of being killed has fallen 99 per cent in the past century.
           Source: International Disaster Database.
    • You have never been more likely to live longer. Life expectancy around the world has risen by 5.5 years so far this century.
           Source: World Health Organisation.
    • We are getting fewer cyclones, not more.
           Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Bureau of Meteorology.
    • There is more food than ever. Grain crops have set new records.
           Source: Food and Agricultural Organisation.
    • The world is getting greener. Leaf cover is growing 3 per cent every decade.
           Source: NASA.
    • Low-lying Pacific islands are not drowning. Nearly half — 43 per cent, including Tuvalu — are growing, and another 43 per cent are stable.
           Source: Professor Paul Kench, University of Auckland.
    • Cold weather is 20 times more likely to kill you than hot weather.
           Source: Lancet, 20/5/2015.
    • Global warming does not cause droughts.
           Source:  Andy Pitman, ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes.
  

  Australian rainfall since 1900

  • Australia’s rainfall over the past century has increased, and so has New Zealand’s rainfall this century.
         Source: Bureau of Meteorology; Census At School (zip file, 63.9 KB). BOM graph: 
  • There are fewer wildfires. Around the world, the area burned by fire is down 24 per cent over 18 years.
         Source: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center et al.
  • Polar bear numbers are increasing, not decreasing.
         Source: Dr Susan Crockford.
  • Global temperatures have hardly increased in the last 20 years. NASA says the average global temperature increased about 0.8° Celsius since 1880 (140 years), which is only 0.6°C per century. This century, temperatures have virtually stood still. Today is about 1°C warmer than 250 years ago. New Zealand temperatures have hardly risen in 100 years.
    Source: NASA Earth Observatory; Watts Up With That; Climate Conversation Group.

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