300,000 people are dying due to man-made climate change every year... 500,000 deaths a year by 2030 from severe heat waves, floods, forest fires and storms... For those who survive extreme weather-related events , many will face hunger, poverty, disease and lost livelihoods... 310 million more people will suffer adverse health consequences, 20 million more will fall into poverty and 75 million more will be displaced if emissions are not brought under control in 25 years,... £78 billion losses every year to date... £360 billion losses every year by 2030...
These are the results of a study released last Friday by Kofi Annan's thinktank, the Global Humanitarian Forum. Leading climatologists are telling us that mans actions are contributing to climate change, yet 11 of the 12 countries considered least at risk are industrially developed. Ironically, this new study shows that 98% of people seriously affected, 99% of all weather-related disasters and 90% of economic losses are happening in the developing world. Is it really fair that the developing world should suffer immeasurably from the behaviours of the industrialised West? The people in the developing world seldom fly in airplanes, rarely drive cars.
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change, said in Saturday's Guardian newspaper, ""The scale of devastation is so great that it is hard to believe the truth about it or how it is possible that so many people remain ignorant of this crisis". Kofi Annan said, "Weak leadership, as evident today, is alarming. If leaders cannot assume responsibility they will fail humanity. Agreement is in the interests of every human being." At a time when the people understandably feel let down by their elected officials for expenses abuses, the biggest scandal of all is surely the scandal that's been there all along: a broken economy, and a dying planet. Let's start to fix both by voting Green on June 4th and voting for a million new green jobs in the UK.
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