From the Center for American Progress Action Fund:
 
ENVIRONMENT -- NATURAL DISASTERS QUADRUPLED IN PAST TWO DECADES: "More than four times the number of natural disasters are occurring now than did two decades ago," said concludes a new Oxfam report that "largely blamed global warming." "The world suffered about 120 natural disasters per year in the early 1980s, which compared with the current figure of about 500 per year. ... The number of people affected by extreme natural disasters, meanwhile, has surged by almost 70 percent, from 174 million a year between 1985 to 1994, to 254 million people a year between 1995 to 2004, Oxfam said. Floods and wind-storms have increased from 60 events in 1980 to 240 last year, with flooding itself up six-fold." Climate change is already causing major shifts in weather patterns. A recent drought in the Southeast, the intensity of the California wildfires, and the ferocity of hurricanes have all been linked to global warming. In its most recent report, the Nobel-Prize winning International Panel on Climate Change warned that the effects of manmade global warming are "becoming evident already."


Neila Seaman Director Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter 3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280 Des Moines, IA 50310 [log in to unmask] 515-277-8868
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