NationStates Jolt Archive

So sayeth a US government specialist.


FIJI is amongst Pacific countries that will be most affected by global warming, a Pacific Global Health Conference in Honolulu has heard.

United States government specialist on environmental health, Dr Mark Keim, told the conference rising seas and coastal flooding will affect millions world wide, starting in the Pacific, reports Radio New Zealand.

Dr Keim said Fiji, American Samoa, Micronesia and Tuvalu ''will be the most affected early on.''


(Article (http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=65232))

So sayeth a US government specialist.

(Article (http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=65232))

President Bush replies: "Well maybe they can use some of their FeeJee magic"
Presidential aide: "That's voodoo magic sir"
President Bush: "Stop speaking French to me...s'il vooooo plait" *drinks more bourbon*

only in the millions?

only in the millions?

He was speaking only of coastal flooding, I think.

Reply: No one cares about Fiji because their a military dictatorship.;)

Presidential aide: "That's voodoo magic sir"


Since indigenous Fijians are almost 100% Christian, and very assertive about it too, they would be very upset to hear that. :p

Reply: No one cares about Fiji because their a military dictatorship.;)

Temporarily. Or so they say. ;)

The guy also mentions American Samoa, though, as well as Micronesia, which is a former US colony, and one of the US' staunchest allies in the UN (although I assume many Americans would never even have heard of it).

So sayeth a US government specialist.


Bet his nick is "Captain Obvious".
Oh well, some good sense in the US government never hurts.

Reply: No one cares about Fiji because their a military dictatorship.;)

*they're

Oh well, some good sense in the US government never hurts.

It hurts if you're the one espousing it to the U.S. government! :mad:

Climate change will affect millions?

In other news, scientists have once again confirmed that water is indeed wet. Congratulations to the men and women who spent all of 1 second researching that.

But seriously, it took a government statement to tell us that? Over on this side of the pond (UK), we're constantly carping on about it. Or is that just the people I know?

In other news, scientists have once again confirmed that water is indeed wet. Congratulations to the men and women who spent all of 1 second researching that.


But what if it's dry ice - if i melt it, can i take a swim without getting wet?
o.0

But what if it's dry ice - if i melt it, can i take a swim without getting wet?
o.0

In a way…

only in the millions?
Yeah, I was going to ask the same thing.
He was speaking only of coastal flooding, I think.
Wasn't it that about 90% of the human population lived on or near the coast lines?

5 years ago called, they want their news story back.

5 years ago called, they want their news story back.
Five years ago, climate change didn't exist in the U.S. - didn't you know?

Yes, I would agree that global warming, if it existed, would effect millions. Look at the following effects

Millions of New Zealanders will finally get half way decent weather. We will no longer need to go to Fiji and Queensland in winter, because our own country will have reasonable weather. We will no longer need five blankets on our beds because it will no longer be so cold.

Millions of Siberians will be able to grow crops; making them more prosperous. Imagine Siberia as the bread basket of the world.

Millions of Canadians will be able to grow even more crops; making them also more prosperous. Canada will be another bread basket of the world.

Millions who die of winter ailments will no longer perish - more people die because of winter than because of summer.

and so on.

And Florida will become WaterWorld!

Yes, I would agree that global warming, if it existed, would effect millions. Look at the following effects

Millions of New Zealanders will finally get half way decent weather. We will no longer need to go to Fiji and Queensland in winter, because our own country will have reasonable weather. We will no longer need five blankets on our beds because it will no longer be so cold.

Millions of Siberians will be able to grow crops; making them more prosperous. Imagine Siberia as the bread basket of the world.

Millions of Canadians will be able to grow even more crops; making them also more prosperous. Canada will be another bread basket of the world.

Millions who die of winter ailments will no longer perish - more people die because of winter than because of summer.

and so on.

This post is so wrong I can only hope that it's not serious.

Explain to me how it is wrong? I am being perfectly serious; right now it is lunchtime here and my thermometer is registering 8 degrees; and I am in the "winterless north." Further south, it is barely above freezing and to be quite frank, we are sick of the cold.

Millions of New Zealanders will finally get half way decent weather. We will no longer need to go to Fiji and Queensland in winter, because our own country will have reasonable weather. We will no longer need five blankets on our beds because it will no longer be so cold.

Woohoo! Typhoons all year round!

Millions of Siberians will be able to grow crops; making them more prosperous. Imagine Siberia as the bread basket of the world.

Except that since Siberia is permafrost tundra, it would dissovle first.

Millions of Canadians will be able to grow even more crops; making them also more prosperous. Canada will be another bread basket of the world.

While crops grow unheeded in Canada, its populace is extinguished by hordes of equatorial viruses and enormous tornadoes and hurricanes… while, south of the border, the US has turned into a desert wasteland… except for Florida, which has become SaltWaterWorld.

Explain to me how it is wrong? I am being perfectly serious; right now it is lunchtime here and my thermometer is registering 8 degrees; and I am in the "winterless north." Further south, it is barely above freezing and to be quite frank, we are sick of the cold.

Heh heh… southern hemisphere. It's summer here, going to be 33˚C tomorrow. And humid, of course. :mad:

Edit: Oh yeah, forgot to mention the smog.

Millions who die of winter ailments will no longer perish

Instead, they'll have new, exciting ways to perish.

Explain to me how it is wrong? I am being perfectly serious; right now it is lunchtime here and my thermometer is registering 8 degrees; and I am in the "winterless north." Further south, it is barely above freezing and to be quite frank, we are sick of the cold.

The climate changing phenomena known as global warming is poorly named. It doesn't mean that the world will just get warmer. In fact, most of Europe is likely to be subject to an ice age if global warming continues unabated. Not to mention that all the people living in coastal areas will die or be made homeless, that's millions upon millions of dead and refugees. A lot of island nations will simply disappear under the sea.

And I suspect you've heard all this before, and chose to ignore it then and will likely choose to ignore it now. Maybe you're just being contrary because you don't like people telling you to change how you live your life. Maybe you're just a troll.

I am no troll; and also, I have a few points to deal to

Woohoo! Typhoons all year round!

You are clearly geographically challenged. Asia gets typhoons; in the South Pacific, we get cyclones, and even then, they rarely make land (the Pacific Isles only get a bad one every five years or so, even with global warming, they would still be rare)

Except that since Siberia is permafrost tundra, it would dissovle first.

Then we get dirt and start growing crops; I need to start buying Siberian land

While crops grow unheeded in Canada, its populace is extinguished by hordes of equatorial viruses and enormous tornadoes and hurricanes… while, south of the border, the US has turned into a desert wasteland… except for Florida, which has become SaltWaterWorld.

Equatorial viruses would not go that far north; even if temperatures increased by five degrees, that would mean that the boundary of equatorial viruses would go north by a further thousand miles - not hiting Canada. Also, Canada would get the odd hurricane and the odd tornado, but nothing significant. Furthermore, the US will not turn into a desert wasteland; it would take a ten to twenty degree temperature increase to turn it into a desert wasteland.

Also, Ifreann, you obviously do not know what winter, a proper winter is like. A winter so bone chillingly cold that you are standing on a railway platform at eight in the morning, and your feet are still cold even though you have two pairs of socks and shoes on. A winter so cold that when you walk outside at 10 at night to collect trolleys, you start shivering and run just to keep warm. You don't know the foul excuse for summer we get - summer only lasts one month here; Christmas is still freezing cold, and by February, the temperatures are already starting to sink.

if the government of the US has started talking seriously about climate change, that can mean only one thing!

somebody has found a way for transnational corporations to profit from it...

snip-snip-snippity-snip

Clearly, I am exaggerating for comic effect.

And hey, if Frodo can handle New Zealand without any shoes or socks, then doggonit, so can you.

Also, Ifreann, you obviously do not know what winter, a proper winter is like. A winter so bone chillingly cold that you are standing on a railway platform at eight in the morning, and your feet are still cold even though you have two pairs of socks and shoes on. A winter so cold that when you walk outside at 10 at night to collect trolleys, you start shivering and run just to keep warm. You don't know the foul excuse for summer we get - summer only lasts one month here; Christmas is still freezing cold, and by February, the temperatures are already starting to sink.

I don't know where you got the idea that I care what your winters are like(and didn't you say you're from the winterless north?), but I really don't. What I do care about is that you seem to think that the massive destruction and death that climate change could cause is fine if you don't have to deal with the cold anymore. I find it very unpleasant when people show that little regard for human life and the state of the planet.

Oh, and I notice you're from New Zealand. Yeah, rising sea levels would submerge most of your country.
if the government of the US has started talking seriously about climate change, that can mean only one thing!

somebody has found a way for transnational corporations to profit from it...
Now is the time to invest in companies selling "green" alternatives to....well, anything.

I said I was from the "winterless north," however, you obviously failed to note the inverted commas - it is clear that although it is called that, it ain't the winterless north, at least to us Aucklanders/Northlanders.

Also, if you are opposed to global warming, then obviously you are in favour of cold winters - the only people that would be in favour of cold winters is people that have not exprienced it since birth.

Also, more people die of winter related problems than summer related problems; our hospitals in New Zealand are always full in winter - they are virtually empty in summer, and worldwide, you can find the statistics say the same thing - winter is more deadly than summer. Global warming = less winter = less deaths related to winter.

Finally, Frodo had those fake feet which were about three inches thick - that would have kept him warm.

Also, the only bits that would get submerged are a few bits around the coast; the only people that would suffer are the idiots that bought coastal property.

Also, if you are opposed to global warming, then obviously you are in favour of cold winters - the only people that would be in favour of cold winters is people that have not exprienced it since birth.

In ˚C, just how cold are your winters?

Global warming could have some major benefits, but if it happens really quickly, the benefits will be outweighed in the short term by the massive disruptions caused by accelerated climate change. I mean, I'd love warmer weather and a wider crop growing zone, but not at the cost of millions of lives disrupted and billions in economic output disrupted.

Global warming could have some major benefits, but if it happens really quickly, the benefits will be outweighed in the short term by the massive disruptions caused by accelerated climate change. I mean, I'd love warmer weather and a wider crop growing zone, but not at the cost of millions of lives disrupted and billions in economic output disrupted.

Australia will get longer droughts meaning our agriculture will be much reduced and our water supplies are going to be worse than they are now.

Now is the time to invest in companies selling "green" alternatives to....well, anything.

New! The green fajita from Subway! Also low in carbs, trans-fats, and natural flavours!

Australia will get longer droughts meaning our agriculture will be much reduced and our water supplies are going to be worse than they are now.

Kind of ironic, isn't it? As the sea swallows up coastal land, the water table is falling everywhere else.

Kind of ironic, isn't it? As the sea swallows up coastal land, the water table is falling everywhere else.

Not everywhere, mainly the places that are already strained for water as is. Some areas will see their rainfall increase dramatically. Of course, that's a really bad thing if it happens really quickly...it's not the warming itself, it's how fast it's happening that is the problem. We can deal with natural global warming, but we'll suffer economic losses due to accelerated warming caused by human CO2, and in some areas that cost will be very severe. It may even border on humanitarian crisis.

Yes, I would agree that global warming, if it existed, would effect millions. Look at the following effects

Millions of New Zealanders will finally get half way decent weather. We will no longer need to go to Fiji and Queensland in winter, because our own country will have reasonable weather. We will no longer need five blankets on our beds because it will no longer be so cold.

Millions of Siberians will be able to grow crops; making them more prosperous. Imagine Siberia as the bread basket of the world.

Millions of Canadians will be able to grow even more crops; making them also more prosperous. Canada will be another bread basket of the world.

Millions who die of winter ailments will no longer perish - more people die because of winter than because of summer.

and so on.Increased temperatures will lead to increased storm activity across the globe a-la El Niño style.

The melting of glacial ice will lead to a drop in salinity of the world's oceans which will eventually halt the gulf stream which takes warm water away from the gulf of Mexico. This leads to increased water temperatures and evaporation in the Gulf of Mexico and thus even more increased storm activity.

Suffice to say to this will probably lead to depopulation and emmigration in the equatorial and tropical regions. Large movements of people aren't generally a good thing.

Instead of millions dying of winter aliments they will instead die of heat exhaustion and the like as health services struggle to adapt quickly enough. The heatwave in Europe in 2003 killed about 35,000 people in 7 days.

That same heatwave also reduced crop yields (instead of increasing them). In the UK, which is on the same latitude as Canada, wheat production was down 12% that year.

The US also has military and tactical concerns about climate change, it seems:


Rising sea levels could also lead to boundary disputes as coastlines recede. Generally, a state is entitled to an exclusive economic zone of 200 miles off its coast, unless its zone runs into the zone of another country. Then the two countries split the difference, as was the case with the US and Cuba.

Ms Paskal wonders what might happen if southern Florida is submerged. If the Florida coastline retreats up towards the middle of the state should the border be moved to reflect the new midpoint? That would put the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico in Cuban waters and ships would have to traverse Cuban territory as southern Florida would be an impediment to shipping.

The US military is already thinking ahead to the challenges posed by climate change, a sure sign that the issue is firmly on the political agenda.

A recent study, National Security and the Threat of Climate Change, put together by retired US generals and admirals, made for grim reading.

It said: "On the simplest level, it has the potential to create sustained natural and humanitarian disasters on a scale far beyond those we see today. The consequences will likely foster political instability where societal demands exceed the capacity of governments to cope."


(Article (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2007/06/26/climate_change_and_national_security.html))

Also, if you are opposed to global warming, then obviously you are in favour of cold winters - the only people that would be in favour of cold winters is people that have not exprienced it since birth.

I'm in favor of cold winters, and I've experienced them since birth. Also, I'm pretty sure that Michigan winters are probably a bit colder than your New Zealand winters.

Apparently Michigan is hotter in the summer, and colder in the winter than New Zealand. I always thought it would have been hotter down there.

weather.com (http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/compare/48858?sfld1=Mount%20Pleasant,%20MI%20(48858)&sfld2=auckland,%20new%20zealand&clocid1=USMI0577&clocid2=)

Climate change will affect millions?

In other news, scientists have once again confirmed that water is indeed wet. Congratulations to the men and women who spent all of 1 second researching that.

But seriously, it took a government statement to tell us that? Over on this side of the pond (UK), we're constantly carping on about it. Or is that just the people I know?

During my Anthropology class, I read a report written by a guy who spent ten years travling Pacific islands to research the effects of industrialization on previously stone/bronze/whatever-age societies.
His conclusion was that industrialization led to increased levels of pollution and a shortened lifespan due to the introduction of Western diseases. He also found that the introduction of processed sugar and other western foods led to increased levels of obesity and tooth decay.

So sayeth a US government specialist.

And who knows, maybe if FOXNews parrots it back a few times, it'll all suddenly become real for Americans.

Though I somehow rather doubt it.

Yeah

Three pages and not a peep from NSG's favorite Global Warming Denier, New Mitanni.

You'd think we'd have at least one post saying this was a conspiracy by Al Gore and his Hippienazis.

I said I was from the "winterless north," however, you obviously failed to note the inverted commas - it is clear that although it is called that, it ain't the winterless north, at least to us Aucklanders/Northlanders.
I didn't fail to notice them, I just didn't realise that using them implied one was being sarcastic.

Also, if you are opposed to global warming, then obviously you are in favour of cold winters - the only people that would be in favour of cold winters is people that have not exprienced it since birth.
Actually, if global warming continues the gulf stream will stop and the west coast of Europe won't benefit from its warming affects any more. Which will mean we'll get colder winters, and colder summers for that matter. And I live in Ireland.

Still think I'm in favour of cold winters?
Also, more people die of winter related problems than summer related problems; our hospitals in New Zealand are always full in winter - they are virtually empty in summer, and worldwide, you can find the statistics say the same thing - winter is more deadly than summer. Global warming = less winter = less deaths related to winter.

I'm sure having the hospitals underwater will do great things for the number of people in them. And someone earlier said that 35000 people died in Europe the space of a week in summer of 2003. How many people died in one week in winter of that year?[/quote]

Also, the only bits that would get submerged are a few bits around the coast; the only people that would suffer are the idiots that bought coastal property.

All of Florida is expected to be submerged. Do you think New Zealand has a hope?

Actually, if global warming continues the gulf stream will stop and the west coast of Europe won't benefit from its warming affects any more. Which will mean we'll get colder winters, and colder summers for that matter. And I live in Ireland.

Still think I'm in favour of cold winters?

Clearly someone has watched the Day after Tomorrow one too many times. The gulf stream salinity phenomenon is like the El Nino/La Nina cycle - it is still little understood.

I'm sure having the hospitals underwater will do great things for the number of people in them. And someone earlier said that 35000 people died in Europe the space of a week in summer of 2003. How many people died in one week in winter of that year?

I would not personally know, although chances are they were in the tens of thousands as well. Also, how many hospitals would seriously go underwater?

All of Florida is expected to be submerged. Do you think New Zealand has a hope?

Florida is a low-lying swamp and you are geographically challenged. Our nation is proud to have cliffsides along much of our coast. Dunedin goes from sea level to 100 metres above in the space of a kilometre; same with Wellington - in Wellington, you have house, a ten metre cliff, and another house. Same with Auckland, much of the CBD is a good distance above sea level (for me to get to University from Britomart involves a climb from sea level to at least 20 metres above in the space of half a kilometre). We are a very hilly nation, perhaps a trip on the Overlander will show you how hilly we are.

I'm in favor of cold winters, and I've experienced them since birth. Also, I'm pretty sure that Michigan winters are probably a bit colder than your New Zealand winters.

Apparently Michigan is hotter in the summer, and colder in the winter than New Zealand. I always thought it would have been hotter down there.

Possibly, although as you said, our summers are crap as well. We usually have heaters still running until November; and when summer does came, it is completely and utterly pathetic. At least global warming would make these pathetic summers more bareable.

Australia will get longer droughts meaning our agriculture will be much reduced and our water supplies are going to be worse than they are now.

A good reason for Kiwis to come home! Nothing bad about that. Also, since you have practically bought out the whole of New Zealand, we can start turning the tables - to think, no more doom and gloom on our newspaper pages.

In ˚C, just how cold are your winters?

It depends on which part of the country you are in. In Northland/Auckland, it typically reaches lows of about freezing level to a few degrees above, and the average high is about ten to fourteen. In Wellington, the lows reach about freezing level, with the average high being about seven to ten. In Christchurch, there is at least one snowfall in the winter; the average low is below freezing, and the average high is about five to seven. In Dunedin, there are several snowfalls in the winter, the average low being below freezing and the average high being about five.

However, the windchill and rainchill must also be factored into it; and it is usually raining and windy when the mercury takes a nose dive.

Also, to give you an idea, I am sitting indoors, I have a heater on in the room I am in, I have socks and shoes on and my feet are still frozen.