I write in response to Deane Smart (Times, August 17), who propounds the theory that climate change will have no impact on our future survival.
A study by The Reason Foundation does indeed, show that climate-related deaths have reduced significantly since 1920. The explanations given in the study are that scientific developments, such as the ability to grow crops in drought conditions, the ability to predict extreme weather events and to evacuate vulnerable populations, have protected lives worldwide. The report accepts that adverse climate events are increasing and makes no comment on loss of property, wildlife etc these events have caused. It also makes no predictions about the effects of future climate change which, if the widely-available reports and statistics are true, is increasing at a rapid rate. The writer wishes to “overturn the positions taken by the climate-change-group-think victims of misinformation in the free world”.
The statistics he gives are interesting and testament, perhaps, to human resilience, but to my mind, they overturn nothing and have the potential to themselves misinform.
Mary Kennedy, Cockle Bay
