Killer heat projected in Minneapolis by end of century

Earth Heating Up

By Bill McAuliffe

By the end of the century, the Twin Cities area could see eight times as many deaths annually due to extreme heat as it does now, according to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

The projected increase — from about 14 per year to 121 by century’s end — would be among the steepest experienced by 40 major metro areas. The authors said that is partly because extremely oppressive heat waves would be more of a shock to northern residents’ systems.

But local officials said the area has already been preparing for extreme heat, developing a plan that involves cooling centers, monitoring of vulnerable residents and a restriction from shutting off electricity to people who haven’t paid their bills. “Minneapolis has a very thorough and very robust plan,” said Pam Blixt, preparedness director for the city health department.

Read the rest at the Star Tribune.

25 Responses to Killer heat projected in Minneapolis by end of century

  1. NEILIO May 26, 2012 at 5:33 am #

    I would like to know how these projections were made. I can only assume that it is a computer climate model projection because there is no mention of it other than that it is a projection. That is from the story in the Star Tribune, and from the NRDC link in the story. But we see at the end of the story the real reason for the story: “They urged aggressive action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the primary cause of climate warming.” Ah ha! It is the same old scare tactics to freighten people into a course of action. Nothing new here folks. Same old same!

    • NEILIO May 26, 2012 at 6:21 am #

      I just can’t leave this. “The primary cause of climate warming”? Seriously, does anyone have any doubt that this report is biased? Sorry, but the primary cause of climate warming, and cooling, is the Sun. There is no question about that. Why would they say that the primary cause of warming is greenhouse gases? That is just ridiculous, and demonstrably false. It tells me that they are basing their projections on computer models that have been thouroughly debunked. Computer models that double the actual annual increase of GHGs, and are designed to show positive feedbacks in the climate system that have never occured, and will never occur, because they are fabricated. It’s a great example of lies based on lies, in typical Leftist fashion.

  2. Fraz May 26, 2012 at 8:35 am #

    No doubt, we all are responsible for the earth current condition. It is not enough to just create a buzz on the internet and after that just sit back and relax. Practical action is needed otherwise that time is not far away when we will be the victim of Sun’s dangerous waves. Major shift of climate change is on the run and we are witnessing people dying every year.

  3. Heath Clarke May 26, 2012 at 4:54 pm #

    It’s from the NRDC, so there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s biased.

    • NEILIO May 26, 2012 at 8:26 pm #

      Oh crap! I don’t know how that slipped by me. I didn’t know what the NRDC was. I thought it was some governmental organization, but I just looked into them a little. It’s an environmental activist group, made up mostly of lawyers. Envoronmental lawyers! You hit the nail on the head, it is no doubt as biased as biased can be.

  4. NEILIO May 27, 2012 at 10:07 pm #

    If you’re looking for something a bit less biased, well, here you go. It’s an interesting read.
    http://www.csccc.info/reports/report_23.pdf
    “In general, climate change could change the frequencies, intensities and/or durations of extreme weather events”- (which it’s not according to the IPCC’s SREX report)-“such as floods, droughts, windstorms and extreme temperatures – increasing them at some locations and for some periods, while decreasing them at other locations and other periods. Some of the effects of these changes will tend to offset each other and/or be redistributed over space and time.
    For instance, an increase in deaths due to heat waves at one location might be compensated for by a decline in deaths due to fewer or less intense cold waves at the same or another location. Alternatively, climate change might redistribute the temporal and spatial pattern of rainfall, droughts and other such events.
    Accordingly, to estimate the net impact of climate change on mortality (if any), it is probably best to examine cumulative deaths at the global level aggregated over all types of extreme events. Because of the episodic nature of extreme events, such an examination should ideally be based on several decades’, if not centuries’, worth of data. Any such examination should, of course, be cognizant that adaptive capacity and exposure of human populations to risk also change over time.”

  5. Rob N. Hood May 29, 2012 at 3:16 pm #

    Yes, environmentalists are one of our most dire potential enemies re: the American way of life! Theyhave such a long history of ruthless oppression and suppression- with only more to come due to four more years of Obama/Gore (as the invisible evil VP) !

    Here’s what I’m terrified of – America becoming a religious theocracy. I look at history and the current Middle East and I see how well religion and politics mix. Now I know that you think men like Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson, and Pat Buchanan are benevolent Christians who will rule us all with a firm, kind, daddy hand. Unfortunately they won’t if history is any indication.

    The Right is so worried about the “dilapidated state of affairs of the country” maybe they should spend a little time trying to figure out some new economic ideas that actually work instead of what caused a global depression and throwing millions of Americans out of work and out of their homes.

    You CHOSE to vote for an idiot named George W. Bush, who managed to take the best economy the country had seen in decades, and screw it up almost instantly. Here’s a little quote from the republican Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan circa 2001 supporting Bush’s tax cuts: “we’re in danger of paying off the national debt too quickly, we need to cut taxes.” Can you see how low unemployment and no national debt were so scary to Republicans that they immediately derailed it? I suppose one could argue that Republicans set out to destroy the economy to reduce the number of Mexican immigrants. Even they don’t want to come to this country anymore because your party has messed it up so badly?

    The good news for you is that the “elitists” you’re so worried about are primarily rich Republicans, and once they’ve finished extracting every dollar they can from the American middle class they’ll all depart to Dubai .You’ll be stuck sitting around broke, with your thumb up your a#$, wondering why you’re sick and can’t afford medical care, and why the Koch Brothers no longer fund your lame Tea Party rallies now that they’re living in Dubai, and how betrayed you feel when dumb, drug addict, citizen of Costa Rica, Rush Limbaugh is caught on an open mic laughing at how stupid the poor rubes who kept voting to cut his taxes really were. If you think the wealthy care about America you’re delusional. Once it gets too uncomfortable for them to look at all the poor people they created they’ll leave, and you and all your delusional, right-wing, Liberal-hating friends will have to figure out some new menace to scare yourselves with, like maybe the food and water riots that are taking place because the country is so damn broke from all the tax cuts and wars you voted for.

  6. Rob N. Hood June 4, 2012 at 1:09 pm #

    The “two party system” is an illusion. Has been for many years. We are continually told that if we don’t vote for a Dem, the Repubs will win and we are all gonna be screwed. The same thing happens on the other side of the fence. About the time Mr. Average Repub thinks he has had enough of his party and maybe vote for a Dem, he sees an email from the NRA claiming Obama is going to take away all the guns after he is re-elected and, even though the free-market capitalistic-based economy has cut his wages, eliminated his benefits and cost his wife her job, the Repubs get his vote.

    It is gonna continue to go this way until enough people get fed up with the whole charade and vote for other candidates and parties. If it is a “D” or an “R”, the end result is gonna be the same: more money and power for the corporations & the rich, while the rest of us are trying to scratch out a meager existence with what is left. It just works in over-drive with the Republitians.

    • NEILIO June 5, 2012 at 5:53 am #

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/17/rags-to-riches-worlds-ric_n_671253.html#s120748&title=Sheldon_Adelson_CEO
      Sure, it might be highly discouraging to watch the successful progeny of dynastic wealth — think the scions of the Houses of Trump, Hilton and Newhouse. But look around the ranks of corporate America’s most prominent and you’ll also find a wealth of self-generated wealth.

      Lloyd Blankfein, CEO And Chairman, Goldman Sachs
      Blankfein, a postal worker’s son grew up in Brooklyn’s Linden Houses. When he was a teenager he took the long commute to Yankee Stadium to work as a concession vendor.

      Larry Ellison, Oracle Co-Founder and CEO
      Ellison ended up going from one odd job to another, with just enough to survive on fast food and buy gas. He eventually got a job at Ampex Corporation in the 1970s where he found his calling.

      Ursula Burns, Xerox CEO
      Her mother ran an at-home daycare center taking care of other children and also ironed shirts for people in order to allow her daughter to afford to go to Catholic school. Burns is the first African-American woman to run a Fortune 500 company, and has made quite the impressive progression from being a Xerox summer intern in 1980 to the company’s CEO.

      John Paul Dejoria, Co-founder and CEO of John Paul Mitchell
      Dejoria was left to take care of his 2-year-old son on his own and was so poor he resorted to exchanging soda bottles for change. The turning point came when he got a job working as a salesperson at Redken hair company and was influenced to start a hair company with his friend Paul Mitchell. He is now worth $4 billion.

      Oprah Winfrey, Media Mogul
      Her mother was never really around much to take care of her, and Winfrey was abused by several family friends and relatives in Milwaukee.

      Winfrey’s first job? She worked as a “quiet grocery store worker” and was not allowed to talk to customers.

      In 1968, she moved permanently to Nashville after becoming pregnant at the age of 14. After her week-old baby died, her father decided to help her turn her life around by instilling strict discipline and making sure that she would get an education, reports People.

      She eventually became an honors student in high school and attended Tennessee State University on a full scholarship. Winfrey later transitioned into television, and became Nashville’s first African-American female news anchor.

      (Go to the link above and read the rest)

      Sheldon Adelson, CEO and Chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp

      Howard Schultz, Starbucks Chairman and CEO

      Guy Laliberte, Cirque Du Soleil Founder and CEO

      Roman Abramovich, Oil Tycoon and Owner of Chelsea FC

      Li Ka- Shing, Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Limited and Cheung Kong Holdings

      But, according to RNH it’s just hopeless. Heaven forbid that you should actually have to do something to create wealth for yourself, and not rely on the government to handle your life!

  7. Rob N. Hood June 5, 2012 at 7:21 am #

    “self generated” while NOT (?) utilizing any tax-payer funded infrastructure and/or public educated staff? Your last sentence is of course ludicrous, I never have said anything of the sort, nor will I. There have been a few truly talented and smart people who have made a lot of money, good for them I say. There are many more however who used the system (taking more than they have contributed) and/or inherited their start. But I know that is not black and white enough for your two-dimensional brain. It is both very funny and very sad to see blue-collar schmoes defending their monetary superiors. These are the same elite who don’t mind keeping you in a stagnant or decreasing financial condition. In fact they work just as hard at that as they do in making their money. But just sayin’.

    • NEILIO June 5, 2012 at 5:16 pm #

      That’s just it RNH. THERE IS NOBODY KEEPING ME IN A STAGNANT OR DECREASING FINANCIAL CONDITION!!! If anyone is doing that to me it is myself. Those people got where they are by working hard, making good decisions, and taking risks/chances. There’s no secret to it. And there is nobody holding you down but yourself. I am not defending them, I just see them for what they are, not what buzzflash, the smirking chimp, and the rest of your socialist/class warfare propaganda has you believing about them.
      I have some money saved up but I am not a risk taker. I could invest that money and there is a chance that I could make a large profit, but there is also a chance that I could lose it, so I am unwilling to take that chance. That is what holds me back. I have some ideas for inventions that could potentially make me a millionair, but there is also a chance that they will not, and I would be out the money I would have to spend on a patent, so I don’t do it. There is nobody holding me back but myself!
      You rail against the rich all the time but you fail to aknowledge what it took for many of them to get where they are. You are so misinformed it just boggles my mind. And you claim to be so logical and knowledgable, it’s sad. Really really sad.

      • NEILIO June 6, 2012 at 4:16 pm #

        I don’t know why I bother with you. Nothing I say, no fact, no truth will be good enough because you don’t care. As long as the agenda you support is implemented. It doesn’t matter what is right, it doesn’t matter what anybody argues or offers as evidence, you don’t care.

  8. Rob N. Hood June 7, 2012 at 7:10 am #

    Logic and reason can only be heard with ears that can hear them. Yours cannot, that much is clear. To rant against that is what is wasteful. Instead, truly educate yourself, by looking at data and info in as much a nonbiased manner as is possible. That is the method used by wise persons. You may be occasionally correct, inasmuch as any mortal can be. However, you will also find the need for humility to digest incorrect assumptions and especially feelings. I watch myself for this as much as possible. It is though, admittedly, quite enjoyable to feel self-rightous about virtually anything, and that is probably also some kind of sin we are all guilty of.

    • NEILIO June 7, 2012 at 8:07 pm #

      So what if my ears can’t hear logic? I don’t “listen” to the computer. I read what is on the screen. It’s another set of sensory organs. Which, I regret that I must point out, is quite illogical for you to write that my ears can’t hear logic. Now as far as looking at data in as much a nonbiased manner as is possible, I have to ask you, do you have any other sources than buzzflash, the smirking chimp, move on .org, or the huffington post? I mean really RNH, that is the pot calling the kettle black. You should really practice what you prea… oh that’s right. Sorry, I forgot you’re a liberal. You do whatever the heck you want as long as it furthers your agenda. Up to and including expecting others to do as you say, and not as you do. And that’s because you don’t care what the means are, as long as the end you desire is accomplished. And just what is the end that you desire you ask? Well, stop me if I’m wrong, I think that you are here to see the opposition to climate change action is tammped down so that, even though you claim that you are undecided about global warming, the environmentalist/leftist agenda can be implemented, so the socialist utopia that you have wet dreams about can become a reality. Even though it has never worked anywhere it’s been tried, even though millions of people have died from the implementation of socialism in other countries.
      We are both fools RNH. The only difference between us is that I know I am.

  9. Rob N. Hood June 7, 2012 at 8:08 am #

    OKLAHOMA CITY — The average daily temperature for the first five months of 2012 has been the hottest on record in Oklahoma, and drought is creeping back into the state a year after a summer that broke national and state records for heat, an official with the Oklahoma Climatological Survey said Wednesday.

    The January-May statewide average of 56.3 degrees was 5.2 degrees above normal in records that date to 1895, said Gary McManus, associate state climatologist.

    I know I know- normal climate changes… the sun is “hotter” etc. etc. etc. We tiny brained humans cannot deal with it in any way shape or form…

    • NEILIO June 7, 2012 at 7:45 pm #

      Oh my, Oklahoma City is above normal temps!?!?!? That must mean something to the State averages, the regional averages, and the nationwide averages too. Right? And how does that effect the worldwide average temperatures? Obviously, it’s the greenhouse effect causing the Oklahoma City average temps to be high. Right?

      Honestly, who cares? The high average temperatures in Oklahoma City means just one thing. That it’s warm in Oklahoma City! It means nothing else. What else could it mean? It might make a small difference to the regional averages, but that variance will get smaller exponentially with an effect on state, region, country, continent, and world averages. It only means that AC repairmen will be busy this summer in Oklahoma City.

      Oh, and the Sun is not getting hotter:

      http://www.solarham.net/swpc.htm
      Joint USAF/NOAA Report of Solar and Geophysical Activity
      SDF Number 159 Issued at 2200Z on 07 Jun 2012

      IA. Analysis of Solar Active Regions and Activity from 06/2100Z
      to 07/2100Z: Solar activity was low. Several C-class flares were
      observed over the past 24 hours. The largest was a C9/2n flare
      observed at 07/1543Z from Region 1499 (N15W09). This region
      produced five other low level C-class flares during the period.
      Region 1494 (S18W19) grew slightly and was also responsible for five
      low level C-class flares during the period. These regions were
      classied as Cai and Dso type groups, respectively, both with
      beta-gamma magnetic characteristics. Region 1497 (S21W44) decreased
      in areal extent since yesterday, but remained the largest region on
      the disk and was classified as a Dai type group with beta magnetic
      characteristics.

      IB. Solar Activity Forecast: Solar activity is expected to be low
      with a chance for isolated M-class activity.

      • NEILIO June 7, 2012 at 11:16 pm #

        Sorry, I should modify that a bit. The Sun IS getting warmer and brighter as it burns through its fuel over billions of years. However, the solar cycles cause the Sun to increase and decrease in intensity, and right now the intensity is not very high and has been fairly quiet for a few years now. Which is what I meant when I said the Sun is not getting hotter. In other words, the warming in Oklahoma City is not due to the Sun’s intensity, and is probably due to local weather patterns and UHI effect.

  10. Rob N. Hood June 8, 2012 at 7:04 am #

    Ohhhh, I see. So when in the past you repeatedly indicated that “it’s basically the sun stupid” you reqlly didn’t mean that… Buuuut, even though it’s not the sun right now, it really still is (UHI)….uh whaaa???

    • NEILIO June 9, 2012 at 6:01 am #

      Wow, that is really inept. UHI, stands for Urban Heat Island. As far as the Sun, it is the overwhemingly greatest source of energy this planet recieves. It is also the engine that drives our climate. I think what you don’t seem to grasp is the fact that the reactions to changes in the Sun’s intensity on the Earth are not instantaneous. The Earth is not just a ball of rock. It has land, air, and lots of water. The oceans take a long time to absorb, and release heat and there can be changes that occur on decadal and centennial time scales.

  11. Rob N. Hood June 9, 2012 at 7:32 am #

    Well forgive my “ineptness”, Sir O. Simple clarification would have sufficed, besides, my query was quite apt based upon your previous posts all over this site. So, now you are saying what many climate scientists have been saying all along re: the overall complexity, the time lags, effects fo ocean temps, etc. It seems to me you previously placed all emphasis on the Sun, which may or may not be correct, but is a fairly good guess nonetheless. That you also however, have excluded all human effects or AGW is another issue of course. And you have also always taken the fall-back position of climate change is normal, has always happened (duh) and always will (another duh)- except you have never before added the caveat that things are indeed trending warmer.

  12. Rob N. Hood June 9, 2012 at 8:29 am #

    BTW- the UHI’s heat is derived mainly by… wait for it… the Sun.

  13. Rob N. Hood June 10, 2012 at 4:02 pm #

    Neilio: “I just can’t leave this. “The primary cause of climate warming”? Seriously, does anyone have any doubt that this report is biased? Sorry, but the primary cause of climate warming, and cooling, is the Sun. There is no question about that.”

  14. Rob N. Hood June 10, 2012 at 8:19 pm #

    So, are you saying what I’ve been saying all along (no, can’t be that, I’m sure) that this is a complicated issue, etc.? Or are you saying what I believe I have seen from you since day one, and that “it is the Sun stupid”? Care to clarify? Or is this too close to being an ad hominen for your refined sensibilities?

  15. Rob N. Hood June 13, 2012 at 11:18 am #

    The right needs a large and dumbed down underclass to maintain its profits here and abroad. To that end, large numbers of people have to be kept down anyway possible. The old idea of a Middle class society has been tossed and as we devolve back to a two class society the right has been manufacturing lots of reasons why poor people are to blame for their own poverty. They want a society where the 1-2% live on vast estates /plantations and the rest of us live in increasingly desperate poverty. For them any amount will be spent to protect them and their property for the rest of us its going to be getting nastier and nastier. Out here the gangs are the future as large sections of the world start to look and feel more and more like Somalia or Sudan. As the climate machine starts to heat up the world-wide desert and rising seas will greatly increase the distance between the haves and have nots here and abroad. WAR is coming folks WAR and more WAR. WAR of every kind you can imagine. Class War, resource wars , religious wars …. WAR and more WAR and then plague and whatever else is needed to cull the rabble back down to a sustainable amount for the 1-2% sake.

  16. Joe June 22, 2012 at 11:58 pm #

    My God, if you two mailed each other letters instead of posting on this site the postage would kill ya. Now know why the PSA is having financial problems! I’m guilty as well! Suggest you cut to the chase.

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