U.S. blacks face harsher climate change impact

[PosterChild]

29 Jul 2008 17:32:07 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - American blacks are likely to suffer disproportionately from climate change and they are willing to pay to combat it, a commission aimed at raising awareness about global warming said on Tuesday.

"There is a fierce urgency regarding climate change effects on the African-American community," said Ralph Everett, the co-chair of the Commission to Engage African-Americans on Climate Change said. "People need to understand what is at stake -- our very health and well-being."

Blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to live in cities where the so-called heat island effect is expected to make temperature increases more severe, the newly formed group said at a briefing.

More blacks also will be "fuel poor" as energy demand rises due to higher air-conditioning loads, population growth and urbanization, commission said.

In a survey of 750 U.S. black adults released by the commission, 81 percent said the U.S. government should take strong action to deal with global warming, and seven in 10 said it was very important for the 2008 presidential candidates to do something about it.

A solid majority, 64 percent, of those surveyed by telephone between June 20 and July 3 said they would be willing to pay an additional $10 a month to fight global warming. Twenty-eight percent were willing to pay an added $25 a month and only 14 percent were willing to pay an extra $50.

As expected, poorer respondents were willing to pay less, said David Bositis, who supervised the survey for the non-profit Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which launched the commission's effort.

When asked an open-ended question about what they considered to be the most important problem facing the United States, 5 percent of respondents answered global warming.

This has never been mentioned before as the top problem by any black respondents in surveys in 2000, 2004 and 2007. In this survey, 42 percent listed the economy as the most important problem, followed by 17 percent answering energy.

The 5 percent who considered global warming paramount compared with 8 percent who said the Iraq war and 3 percent who answered education. Bositis said most U.S. surveys and polls have such a small number of black participants that it is difficult to separate out black attitudes.

The commission aims to draw African-Americans into the climate change debate and to involve the black community in economic opportunities of the green economy. (Editing by Bill Trott)

http://http://www.alertnet.org/thene.../N29338814.htm

[iceberg]

damn that bush.

[zrinkill]

........I TOLD YOU

[PosterChild]

I have to wonder if there exists some journalistic random conspiracy generator prgm. Let's see...

Inputs: Global Warming-minority- the oppressed-taxes-wealth redistribution-evil conservatives-more governmental regulation-appeal to emotion

Output: any agenda-driven article from the mess media.

Presto!

[bbgun]

It's like that old joke about the NYT:

World to End Tomorrow
Women, minorities hardest hit

[yeahyeah]

More mastery of the obvious from the American press corp. Blacks in inner cities tend to reside under the poverty line.
Wow, what a profound article...not so much.

[Cajuncowboy]

Well if they can't prove this whole thing they might as well go down with one of their favorite slants.

[CanadianCowboysFan]

I don't have any comment on the article, it is sensationalistic but I do find it funny that Cajun, you don't believe in global warming which can be scientifically tested etc yet you believe in the bible which cannot be.

[Cajuncowboy]

Originally Posted by CanadianCowboysFan

I don't have any comment on the article, it is sensationalistic but I do find it funny that Cajun, you don't believe in global warming which can be scientifically tested etc yet you believe in the bible which cannot be.

I find it funny you live in Canada and have the freedom to get the heck out but don't.


So there. We're even.

[ScipioCowboy]

Originally Posted by CanadianCowboysFan

I don't have any comment on the article, it is sensationalistic but I do find it funny that Cajun, you don't believe in global warming which can be scientifically tested etc yet you believe in the bible which cannot be.

Why is it funny? It's perfectly logical.

Cajun doesn't believe in global warming because it is scientifically falsifiable and, thus far, the scientific evidence for it is contradictory and not very compelling.

Meanwhile, the Bible is impervious to scientific scrutiny because it falls outside the realm of methodological naturalism, which, according to Katzmiller vs Dover Area school district, is the ground rule in science.

[Cajuncowboy]

Originally Posted by ScipioCowboy

Why is it funny? It's perfectly logical.

Cajun doesn't believe in global warming because it is scientifically falsifiable and, thus far, the scientific evidence for it is contradictory and not very compelling.

Meanwhile, the Bible is impervious to scientific scrutiny because it falls outside the realm of methodological naturalism, which, according to Katzmiller vs Dover Area school district, is the ground rule in science.

The bottom line is that I don't take these kinds of things seriously (as you can tell by my reply). The thing is people act like we've never experienced this before. It's happened all throughout history, and we're still here. I don't doubt that it's a bit warmer than normal, but it's not sustainable and then we have data that shows that the warmest year we have had was like 40 years ago.

So in the end, it a bunch of knuckleheads who want an issue to beat a drum over. Besides, the last BIG global warming we had, was a good thing.

No more Ice Age.

[Bizwah]

Originally Posted by CanadianCowboysFan

I don't have any comment on the article, it is sensationalistic but I do find it funny that Cajun, you don't believe in global warming which can be scientifically tested etc yet you believe in the bible which cannot be.

There's a reason it's called FAITH

[masomenos]

Just more proof that nature is racist.

[masomenos]

Originally Posted by Cajuncowboy

The bottom line is that I don't take these kinds of things seriously (as you can tell by my reply). The thing is people act like we've never experienced this before. It's happened all throughout history, and we're still here. I don't doubt that it's a bit warmer than normal, but it's not sustainable and then we have data that shows that the warmest year we have had was like 40 years ago.

So in the end, it a bunch of knuckleheads who want an issue to beat a drum over. Besides, the last BIG global warming we had, was a good thing.

No more Ice Age.

Oddly enough it was also global warming that caused the last Ice Age. How weird is that?

[Cajuncowboy]

Originally Posted by masomenos85

Oddly enough it was also global warming that caused the last Ice Age. How weird is that?

And the human race is still standing. Go figure.