At least 1,500 Britons killed by climate change-fueled heat this century – study

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – At least 1,500 deaths in Britain can be directly linked to climate change since 2000, as the country grappled with severe heat waves, while four major floods caused billions in financial losses, Oxford University scientists said on Tuesday.

In a study, the researchers analyzed existing data from two deadly heat waves in 2003 and 2018, as well as four floods from 2000 to 2016 that cost about an estimated $18 billion in losses.

They found that at least half of the total damages and deaths that occurred could be attributed to climate change.

Friederike Otto, acting director of Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute and one of the study’s authors, said far more data needed to be collected and analyzed worldwide for the true consequences of climate change to be understood.

If metrics were agreed, “I think it would become far more obvious to everyone that the impacts of climate change are real and not something that will happen in the future and to someone else... but that they are upon us and costing lives here and now,” Otto told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The authors looked at the two specific British heat waves because the influence of climate change on them had already been analyzed, although others also occurred in the time frame.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to

“well below” two degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels, more than 190 countries must submit action plans setting out measures to combat climate change.

They include not just targets to reduce climate-heating emissions but also ways to adapt to more extreme weather and rising seas, in a bid to limit losses and damage.

Some 5.2 million homes and other properties in England are at risk of flooding, according to Britain’s Environment Agency, as sea levels have risen at ever-increasing rates.

The new study, published in the scientific journal Climate Risk Management, said other countries also faced extreme weather costs exacerbated by climate change, both human and financial.

For example, in Puerto Rico, the increased intensity of Hurricane Maria in 2017 led to the deaths of up to 3,670 people, it noted.

Separately, Stanford University researchers in January found climate change boosted the cost of flood damage caused by heavy rainfall in the United States by $75 billion over the past three decades, accounting for about a third of total losses.

Ben Clarke, lead author of the Oxford study, said he hoped the research would help governments think about how to reduce the impact of future extreme weather events.

“There are deaths occurring as a result, and policy should be based on that,” he said. “It’s all about distributing resources to effectively mitigate that as much as we can.

In his blitz of interviews these last couple of weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu couldn’t be more transparent – he wants us to talk only about the vaccines.

More specially, he wants us to talk about how he brought the vaccines into Israel. Almost every inconvenient question he’s asked, he replies with: “but what about the vaccines I brought?” Every political question is answered by: “but who else but me could have brought us so many vaccines in such a short time?”

And the truth must be said – Netanyahu did an outstanding job getting novel coronavirus vaccines to Israel. He used his experience and connections worldwide and thanks to the Health Ministry, our outstanding health funds and him, Israel is leading the charts of vaccinations per person.

However, there’s one important question that none of his interviewers asked – yes, we are leading the charts, but what’s the next phase?

In recent days, we see that the R infection rate is going up, despite the vaccination operation.

In this sense, all the talk about vaccines, and Netanyahu’s claim that only he can bring the tens of millions of vaccines Israel will need every year, is essentially asking the voters for credit. Give me credit, and you’ll see that eventually, things will be better.

From that point of view, Pfizer CEO was right to postpone his trip to Israel originally scheduled for this week. Coming to Israel just ahead of elections would have turned the visit into an election tool and that would do more harm than good. Vaccinating the public should not be used for politics. It should have nothing to do with it.

But, this is Netanyahu’s usual tactic – give me your credit, and I will annex the West Bank; or, give me your credit and I’ll change the balance between the executive branch and the courts.

The fact that the R rate is going up though illustrates how coronavirus will not be solved solely by vaccines. Another tool has been a lockdown, which government officials now say could be imposed before Passover.

On Purim – whether in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, or Bnei Brak – we saw firsthand that the public has had it with the government and its restrictions. The trust in the state is at the lowest point it was in years.

And this fact, Mr. Netanyahu, should worry you – and us – more than anything else.

Yes, Netanyahu is a gifted orator and diplomat. As a manager, though, he consistently fails to work with others. He succeeds when he alone gets the authority. Then, he hops over bureaucratic hurdles and takes the country forward.

However, in our democratic system, the prime minister is just part of the cabinet. The cabinet makes decisions for the country, not just one person – no matter how talented he or she might be.

Netanyahu knows this well. Numerous times over the last year, Netanyahu was stopped by the failure to muster support for what he wanted to do in the cabinet. Only after a crisis would he sit down with Blue and White and attempt to iron out their differences.

Nevertheless, Kan Reshet Bet anchor Arieh Golan went too far on Monday when comparing the way Netanyahu rules to fascism. This is not fascism; it is not even close.

Let’s not forget that neither Netanyahu nor Blue and White leader Benny Gantz won the last election. There was a tie, so they agreed to form a unity government, which was supposed to represent voters from across the political spectrum.

But instead of unity and solidarity, we see more division and distrust among and between Israel’s different groups. Haredim are suspicious of secular Israelis who are suspicious of the religious. Right fights Left and Jews are pitted against Arabs and vice versa. To truly move forward, the country needs to rally together – be it to fight COVID-19 or simply to move past this ugly phase in our political history.

Let’s hope that whoever wins this election and forms the next government – whether it’s Netanyahu, Yair Lapid, Naftali Bennett or Gideon Sa’ar – will know how to navigate the challenges Israel faces while moving the country forward.

Trust will be needed once again and one way to do that is to stop politicizing everything, including our vaccines.