The Daily Climate news website recently published a post titled “Column: People need shelter from climate change — and their health is at stake,” claiming that climate change is making it harder for people to protect themselves from severe and extreme weather. Federal housing policy is the solution to this problem. This is wrong in many ways. [emphasis, links added]
Climate change is not causing people to face increased risks, and Federal policies involving subsidized housing will not protect homeless people from weather threats.
The author asserts that Vice President Kamala Harris’ proposal to expand federal housing policyincluding the use of federal funds to build homes and down payment assistance, Effectively a “climate change adaptation policy” because people need shelter from extreme weather.
The Daily Climate called this summer the warmest on record. It trumpeted the early start of the Atlantic hurricane season, claiming that “climate change is bringing us many different disasters — serious threats to health — that are becoming increasingly difficult to defend against.”
They go on to write that as housing costs continue to rise, it becomes increasingly difficult for Americans to “dodge climate threats at home.”
They rightly point out that homeless people are more likely to get sick and die from exposure to extreme heat due to a lack of shelter and air conditioning.
However, this is not because of climate change.
None of the threats claimed in this article from climate change to American families are real.
As with the “biggest hit of all time” argument, as always, it depends on what record you're looking at. as climate realism As noted here , here , and here , these claims are speculative at best, even though alarmists characterize them as certain.
Before satellites, there were few records outside the United States and Europe.
We are forced to rely on proxy data, which again is location-specific, but even so, Many of them indicate that there were several periods during the past 10,000 years that were warmer than today.
Regarding hurricanes, there was one early strong hurricane outside the normal window, but the rest of the season has been very quiet.
As with many above-average hurricane season forecasts in the past, panic about hurricanes is declining sharply this year.
According to available data, global cumulative cyclone energy (ACE) of tropical cyclones this year is well within the normal range.
But the main point of the article is that extreme weather poses a greater threat to more and more people, especially American families, than before, and that’s not true.
While it is true that people who are homeless or without adequate housing and electricity are more susceptible to temperature-related illnesses and deaths from heat, heat, and even cold, Over the past 100 years or so of mild warming, the number of deaths from these diseases has declined rapidly around the world.
What's particularly telling is that this article focuses on heat, while cold is the real killer. A 2021 study from The Lancet found The decline in overall deaths from extreme temperatures is largely due to a sharp drop in cold-related deaths. (see picture below)
Likewise, deaths from climate-related disasters have declined overall. (see picture below)
Ironically, the Daily Climate complains about high utility bills and air conditioning and heating bills that are becoming increasingly more expensive because of the fossil fuel policies promoted by these alarmists.
Biden-Harris EPA rules for power plants expected to destabilize grid and lead to massive blackouts, study finds Because the policy expectations are not technically sound, or even impossible, they will only lead to a reduction in power supply.
Wind and solar are not dispatchable energy sources, and battery technology does not provide the required scalability. This leads to higher prices and reduced power reliability, which doesn’t help anyone trying to cope with natural weather extremes.
indeed, Real-world data shows that Biden-Harris energy and climate policies have driven recent sharp increases in energy costs across the board, with the greatest impact on poor households.
Additionally, the idea of federally subsidized housing would help reduce Overall, housing prices are financially illiterate at best.
Policies like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit have led to higher housing costs and fewer options, while Obama’s Housing First program has led to an increase in homelessness, not a decrease.
Giving more power to government and providing more subsidized housing will not solve homelessness. Over the past few decades, this problem has not improved, but has become more serious.
Fossil fuels used for electricity and materials make human civilization more resilient in the face of hardship [fickle weather]and they will continue to do so as long as energy markets are not constrained or constrained by government climate policies.
All of this is true regardless of climate change, but even here the Daily Climate misses the mark.
Popular photo on Unsplash by Nick Fewings
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