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climate change

surviving winter storms

Who Survives Extreme Winter Storms?

Winter kills.  Extreme cold weather affects the elderly and very young children who can’t keep themselves warm, the homeless living on the street, and the poor who have to choose between food or heat.  Also, people who get trapped in their cars, or end up in an auto accident due to slippery roads, are also paying the price of extreme winter weather. The homeless are especially at risk.  When I was in medical school during my vascular surgery rotation at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital, one night we amputated both feet of a homeless veteran due to massive frostbite and gangrene.  This happened in a big… Read More »Who Survives Extreme Winter Storms?

Trump and Climate Change – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Since Trump was made President by the Electoral College there has been no shortage of prognostication over what his presidency will mean for the U.S. efforts to fight climate change.  Think Progress asks “Will Trump go down in history as the man who pulled the plug on a livable climate?”  While Vox definitively states that “Trump’s election marks the end of any serious hope of limiting climate change to 2 degrees.”  The doom and gloom may be overblown, although there are definitely many ways a Trump administration could hurt the world’s efforts to combat climate change.  This post will walk through the good,… Read More »Trump and Climate Change – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

What’s Hot in Climate Change – Oct. 2016

Time for another What’s Hot in Climate Change, a summary of the most interesting and/or important climate change stories from the previous month or so.  For those paying attention, horrific news with respect to the climate seems to be coming at an ever increasing pace. There’s also plenty of encouraging news.  The adoption of alternative energy seems to steadily exceed all expectations.  The race is on between the worst effects of climate change, and those measures we take to stop it from happening.  Our fate quite literally hangs in the balance.   Corrected sea level rise estimates or… it’s worse than you know… Read More »What’s Hot in Climate Change – Oct. 2016

Heat, the environment and you

Climate Change, Deadly Heat and You

Heat waves kill hundreds to thousands of people around the world every summer.  Global warming is making it worse.  An especially hot summer day today will be a normal summer day in the future.  And the rare, deadly heat wave of today will become common.  In this post we’ll take a deep dive into the medical aspects of heat illness and the link to climate change. According to the CDC, heat is the leading cause of weather related death in the US.  From 1999 to 2009 heat exposure killed 7,800 people.  Not only that, but heat makes chronic medical problems… Read More »Climate Change, Deadly Heat and You

What’s Hot in Climate Change – August 2016

Welcome back to What’s Hot in Climate Change, a sample of a few of the stories that stood out from the past few weeks in climate change news. We hope your summer has been a good one so far. It’s been pretty damn hot here in Houston, hot as ever, but even so 2016 is already on track to blow away global records for the hottest year ever recorded. Which brings us to out top stories — a story of fire and ice. Extreme Heat in the Middle East Two places in the Middle East hit 129 degrees fahrenheit (53 centigrade) on July 15th.… Read More »What’s Hot in Climate Change – August 2016