Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
All things being equal, one would expect the total number of deaths from these events to go up in pro-
portion to population—and if catastrophic climate change were true, we should see a massive recent up-
tick, not 29,404 deaths in 2013.
Just to be sure, let's look at the trends of individual types of climate danger in the last thirty
years—when the predicted disasters were supposed to occur.
We'll start with droughts. Droughts are historically the most common form of climate-related death; a
lack of rainfall can affect the supply of the two most basic essentials of life, food and water.
4
Drought is supposed to be one of the most devastating consequences of CO
2
emissions, so let's see how
they match up.
Figure 5.2: More Fossil Fuel Use, Fewer Drought-Related Deaths
-
Sources: Boden, Marland, Andres (2010); EM-DAT International Disaster Database; World Bank, World Development
Indicators (WDI) Online Data, April 2014
Clearly, CO
2
emissions have not had a significant negative effect on droughts, but expanded human
ability to fight drought, powered by fossil fuels, has: from better agriculture (more crops for more people)
