While some went gaga this week over the Budget bus fare cap and whether the word “supporters” included an apostrophe, the Lancet published a new Countdown report on health and climate change. It couldn’t be seriouser.
Ten of 15 indicators of hazards, exposures or impacts hit record levels last year. For example, global data show that almost half the earth’s land surface suffered at least one month of extreme drought — up from 15 per cent in the 1980s.
Likewise, extreme rainfall was above the study’s baseline (average between 1961-1990) in almost two-thirds of the world — another first. On Tuesday, in the town of Chiva, near Valencia in Spain, almost a year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours, causing death and devastation.
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