IVN.us reports:
According to an August 2013 report by the California Environmental Protection Agency titled “Indicators of Climate Change in California,” regional climate change has profoundly impacted the state’s natural physical and biological systems…
Climate change has also affected natural biological systems, as shifts in habitat elevation, changes in timing of growth stages, and increased vulnerability to wildfires or pathogens have threatened species’ abilities to survive. These biological impacts include:
— Heat-related mortality. The July 2006 heat wave, “unprecedented in its magnitude and geographic extent,” resulted in 140 California deaths. Heat-related illness and death is expected to increased as a result of continued warming and more frequent and intense heat waves.
Show us the bodies!
How many of those 140 deaths could have been prevented if the victims could afford to own and operate air conditioning units?
California has a population of about 37,691,912 making 140 less than 0.0004% of the population. Contrast that with 0.0084% who died from falling ( http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/acc-inj.htm ). Heartless though it may be, 140 deaths is a non-event. Particularly considering that number is comprised mainly of elderly, health-compromised individuals with much higher than average likely hood of death for any given set of circumstances.
all propaganda-all the time
As you note, if the only severe heat wave was in 2006, what about the constantly increasing temperature that’s rising faster than predicted, except there aren’t any observations that look like that?
Heat waves are localized weather events rather than climate events and, according to all we know, they have occurred at about the same rate for fifty years or more. (For one thing, how does one define a heat wave anyway?)
The right answer to heat waves, as to cold periods, is cheap energy and low-cost cooling systems so that the most vulnerable to heat stress — the retired elderly who worked for forty years or so and now have to scrape to get by — can be comfortable in their homes.
They said they were basing it on coroners reports, but all other years were “unreliable?” Only one heat wave caused excess heat related deaths? How does the CA heat-related mortality compare with Texas and the Gulf Coast or other hot areas in the US?