Tag: Climate Change

50,000 Excess Winter Deaths In UK 2017/2018 – Climate Change Kills Alright

Published on by sunshinehours1Leave a comment

Cold Kills

“New figures from the Office of National Statistics today show that the number of excess winter deaths exceeded 50,000 the highest on record since the winter of 1975/76. Over 15,000 of these deaths will be relatable directly to a cold home. The vast majority will have multiple hospital and GP visits behind them. The figures also worryingly show a doubling in the number of male deaths under 65.

Adam Scorer, Chief Executive of NEA commented:

“Today’s excess winter death figures should be a huge shock to the system. The cost in human suffering and lost lives is a tragedy. The cost to the NHS is significant and largely avoidable.

Predictable, preventable and shameful. We seem to have accepted excess winter deaths to be as much a part of winter as darker evenings.

On top of these preventable deaths we know that many millions more people will have suffered the preventable health impacts of living in a cold and damp home, as well as resorting to harmful coping strategies.

New evidence provided by frontline workers to NEA, has revealed the top 10 unsafe fuel poverty coping strategies being used to survive winter. The regular use of older, dangerous or un-serviced heating appliances is common place, despite being potentially fatal or leading to heightened risks for nearby neighbours as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning or in extreme situations, fires and explosions. The charity says many more people are going to bed early to keep warm and using candles to save on electricity. People struggling to heat their homes are also spending their days in heated spaces such as libraries, cafes or even A&E to avoid the cold.”

 

Some previous blog posts on the same subject.

 

Heating with Natural Gas vs. Electricity in BC (Canada)

Published on by sunshinehours16 Comments

Update/Correction: The author of the blog post noted in one list:

BASIC CHARGE ($0.4065/day) = 148.37

And didn’t carry it the list with the total.

And the delivery charge is 4.296 per GJ = 429.60 (100GJ for the year)

  1. DELIVERY CHARGE = $429.60
  2. BASIC CHARGE ($0.4065/day) = 148.37
  3. STORAGE AND TRANSPORT = $75.80
  4. COST OF THE GAS = $154.90
  5. MUNICIPAL OPERATING FEE = $20.40
  6. CARBON TAX = $173.82
  7. CLEAN ENERGY LEVY = $2.64
  8. GST = $42.73

GAS total corrected to: 1048.26

Not quite as dramatic a difference … but still huge.

  • End of Correction
  • Original post below

Great blog article comparing Heating with Natural Gas vs. Electricity in BC

The conclusion: Gas Wins at 1/4 of the price.

You pay more in GST for electricity than the actual cost of the gas.

 

A typical home in the southern interior will use 100 GJ (or 27,778kWh)  of energy to heat for a year. Smaller homes and more efficient furnaces can improve on this number, as can global warming because of warmer winters. Bigger homes or poorly insulated homes will use more.

Assuming that you require 100 GJ of heat for your home for the year, your gas costs will be:

  1. DELIVERY CHARGE = $42.96
  2. STORAGE AND TRANSPORT = $75.80
  3. COST OF THE GAS = $154.90
  4. MUNICIPAL OPERATING FEE = $20.40
  5. CARBON TAX = $173.82
  6. CLEAN ENERGY LEVY = $2.64
  7. GST = $42.73

TOTAL = $899.89

Using traditional baseboard heaters, the same amount of energy would cost you over $4,000/year with BC Hydro.

  1. 27,778 kWh at $0.13260/kWh = $3,683.34
  2. RATE RIDER = $184.17
  3. GST = 193.38

TOTAL = $4,060.88

 

Bjorn Lomborg Shreds Media/Scientists Over US Climate Report

Published on by sunshinehours11 Comment

Bjorn Lomborg shreds scientists and media.

“Actually, the assessment, and science, tell a different story. “Drought statistics over the entire contiguous US have declined,” the report finds, reminding us that “the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s remains the benchmark drought and extreme heat event.”

On flooding, the assessment accepts the IPCC’s finding, which “did not attribute changes in flooding to anthropogenic [human] influence nor report detectable changes in flooding magnitude, duration or frequency.”

Even more dramatic was CNN’s headline, screaming that “climate change will shrink [US] economy” by 10 percent, a figure also repeated on The New York Times front page.

Actually, the UN’s climate scenarios envision US GDP per capita will more than triple by the end of this century, so this 10 percent reduction would come from an economy 300 percent larger than it is today. A slightly smaller bonanza, in other words.

But the 10 percent figure is itself dodgy. “