- The NBC News Science andTechnology website, MACH,
published an articlethis week warning that,
without swift action on climate change,
heat waves could kill thousandsof people in US cities.
Climate expert, Steve Goreham says
there's absolutely noevidence that's happening now,
or that it will happen in the near future,
and he joins us to talk about it.
Hi Steve.
Thanks for being with us.
- Hi Wendy, great to join you today.
- Well tell us, why is NBCpromoting fear of the weather?
People are gonna diefrom this overheating.
- Good question.
It seems to be somethingthat they do often.
They're actually referencinga study that came out earlier
this month from a scientificgroup in England that says if
the earth warms by three degreescelsius by the year 2100,
as the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change
says it may, that we couldsee up to 6000 deaths
from heat waves in New York City
and 2500 deaths in Los Angelesand many other locations.
Again, a lot of speculation,but really out of line
with the science and the facts.
- How are these heat waves created?
I mean, 6000 people in NewYork City, 2300 or so in Miami,
what does that kind ofa heat wave look like?
Did they explain it?
- No, these are projections.
You know, we deal with a widerange of temperatures today
in the United States.
For example, in Chicago theaverage annual temperature
is about 10 degrees celsius,
and the climate models saythat the average is gonna rise
by about three degrees celsius,
but I look at VirginiaBeach where you are,
and you guys are six degreescelsius warmer than Chicago.
So I have to wonder, arepeople dying from the heat
all the time in Virginia Beach?
- I gotta be honest with you,there is a definite heat wave
happening in the studio right now,
but it is super humid outsideand the air conditioning
are going full blast, but Ithink we're all gonna live,
you know what I'm saying.
Now, they're talkingabout what would happen
if the global climaterises by, as you mentioned,
five degrees fahrenheit.
Oh, I'm sorry-
- Deaths are gonna occur inthe United States though,
and we already have temperaturesthat are much warmer
across the country, inthe summer all year long.
Matter of fact, the dataactually says that warm climates
are good for people.
There are many many scientificstudies that point out
that more people die in coldtemperatures than in warm.
There's a guy by thename of William Keating,
who did a study of Europe,
and found that ninetimes as many people die
during cold temperaturesas warm temperatures.
Another guy, Dr. Faligas,looked at 10 countries
across the globe, and foundthat for every country
more people would die in thewinter than in the summer.
So, the funny thing is, warmtemperatures are better.
By the way, our flu seasonsare all during the winter,
more people get sick in the winter.
The data says that warmtemperatures are better for people,
and that if anything if temperatures warm,
we would see less deaths overall.
Yet NBC runs a story like this saying that
we're going to havedeaths from heat waves,
so a little bit strange.
- Steve Goreham, with theClimate Science Coalition,
I think you just made your case.
Thank you so much for being with us
and putting us all at easeas the summer continues.
- Thank you.
