One million lost to COVID with perhaps half that being people who volunteered for an infection hasn’t put much of a dent in the nation’s psyche.
It’s true that the 3,000 people lost on 9/11 caused a wave of concern and massive spending, including the $4 Trillion spent the expensive and embarrassing misadventure of the Iraq & Afghanistan wars. But that was just the military/defense lobby wrapping itself in the flag and great marketing – half of that money never went further than the Washington DC suburbs.
I bet we’d be OK with 1 million Americans killed per year due to floods, heat stroke, etc. with the right marketing campaign.
Tobacco use killed an estimated 500,000 Americans in 2020, about the same number the pandemic killed in one year. My own Ph.D. husband continues to smoke despite his moderate COPD and the fact that his own smoker father died of COPD at a younger age than he is now.
Americans want the freedom to do what they want, even when it’s proven to be deadly. They want the freedom to drive. They want the freedom to move to hot deserts and run air conditioning and lawn sprinklers.
<I bet we’d be OK with 1 million Americans killed per year due to floods, heat stroke, etc. with the right marketing campaign.>
There’s no doubt about it. Not even a second’s doubt.
"Heat deaths are beguilingly click-worthy, and studies show that heat kills about 2,500 people every year in the United States and Canada. However, rising temperatures also reduce cold waves and cold deaths. Cold restricts blood flow to keep our core warm, increasing blood pressure and killing through strokes, heart attacks and respiratory diseases.
Those deaths are rarely reported, because they don’t fit the current climate narrative. Of course, if they were just a curiosity, the indifference might be justified, but they are anything but. Each year, more than 100,000 people die from cold in the United States, and 13,000 in Canada — more than 40 cold deaths for every heat death."
By the way, floods happen in WINTER due to ice clogged rivers all the time in the US. Very few die in hurricanes if they take the advice to evacuate seriously.
Texas just hit record power demand (and the lights stayed on) at 76 MW of generating capacity. No one is dying of heat other than possibly in isolated instances, or those who can’t pay their electric bill thanks to SKYROCKETING electric prices from natural gas generation all over the country. (By the way, Texas hit record production of wind power lately with 35% of all power generated coming from wind in May 2022).
“Tobacco use killed an estimated 500,000 Americans in 2020, about the same number the pandemic killed in one year. My own Ph.D. husband continues to smoke despite his moderate COPD and the fact that his own smoker father died of COPD at a younger age than he is now.”
Dr G Medical Examiner top five reasons for visiting her morgue prematurely (early death)
Smoking - #1 cause of premature death. Takes an average of 20 years off your life span.
Alcohol/Drug abuse or use. 40% of traffic accidents are caused by people with high alcohol levels or drugs. Chronic alcohol use puts you away early from liver disease and a raft of other problems - often including stupidity - ‘here, hold my beer’. …
Look at it this way anything approaching 7 billion would solve the problem. I read a fossil fuels research agenda study on this. The US Fossil fuel Research Agency, USFFRA, is the best resource on how to get population growth and fossil fuel usage to balance.
(CNN)Texans are cranking on the air conditioning this week amid an unusually early heat wave, setting new records for electricity demand in the state, which surpassed 75 gigawatts on Sunday and smashed the 2019 record. Texas grid operator ERCOT projects it could approach that peak again on Tuesday.
But unlike previous extreme weather events in Texas which led to deadly blackouts, the grid is holding up remarkably well this week. Several experts told CNN that it’s owed in large part to strong performances from wind and solar, which generated 27 gigawatts of electricity during Sunday’s peak demand – close to 40% of the total needed.
Someone who is not much of a poster says all I do is add opinions. There is a top growth of anti alternative energy people on this board. The nonsense needs to stop. The results in Texas speak volumes. There are several people on this board stuck in a supply side stupor offering a continued hell economically to America. That needs to entirely stop. This is not your cheerleading tryouts.
I bet we’d be OK with 1 million Americans killed per year due to floods, heat stroke, etc. — Heat deaths are beguilingly click-worthy, and studies show that heat kills about 2,500 people every year in the United States and Canada. However, rising temperatures also reduce cold waves and cold deaths
Not only does cold kill more people than heat, but looking at climate-related hazards global average mortality and loss rates dropped by 6.5 and nearly 5 times, respectively, from 1980-1989 to 2007–2016. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378019300378
Americans want the freedom to do what they want, even when it’s proven to be deadly. They want the freedom to drive. They want the freedom to move to hot deserts and run air conditioning and lawn sprinklers.