Fatalistic Friday: Climate change killing 300K/souls/yr, menacing North America, more

What a Difference Seven-Tenths of a Degree C Make: Global warming is killing 300,000 people a year, and leaving around 45 million hungry, says the Global Humanitarian Forum, a think tank founded by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan. And those numbers will likely double by 2030. 9 out of 10 deaths are related to deteriroration of the environment; deaths caused by climate-related malnutrition, diarrhea and malaria outnumber direct fatalities from weather-related disasters. 99 percent of the fatalities are in developing countries, which have contributed less than one percent of the world's total carbon emissions to what's built up in the atmosphere. And oh yeah: climate change is already costing the world $125 billion annually, conservatively. (CNN) (Hat tip to Mike)

Bigger, Stronger, Faster: The pace of global warming is accelerating at an alarming rate, says U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. (Our response to climate change, not so much.) "What is frightening is that the scientists are now reviewing their predictions [in the IPCC's fifth assessment report], and recognizing that climate change impact is accelerating at a much faster pace," Ban said. He'd really like people to take serious action when the world meets over the international climate treaty this December, in Copenhagen. (Reuters)

Rock, Meet Hard Place: Lead particle pollution changes the altitude and distribution of clouds, ultimately cooling the climate. The lead particles provide sites for an ice nucleus to form and eventually create the ice crystals that make up cirrus ice clouds. “The cloud changes let more longwave radiation escape into space, leading to a cooling effect on the climate,” researcher Dan Cziczo concludes.

If the Melting Antarctic Ice Sheet Doesn't Get Us: [[I really can't do better than this precis by Bruce:]] "Antarctica melts, water floods into oceans, the planet’s gravity changes because the polar ice is gone and the North Atlantic rises and beats the living hell out of the USA. Hey, nice one, Exxon." Research published in the journal Science. (Beyond the Beyond)

Then the Melting Greenland Ice Sheets Might: Melting of the Greenland ice sheet this century may drive more water than previously thought toward the already threatened coastlines of the northeastern United States and Canada. "If Greenland's ice melts at moderate to high rates, ocean circulation by 2100 may shift and cause sea levels off the northeast coast of North America to rise by about 12 to 20 inches (about 30 to 50 centimeters) more than in other coastal areas. The research builds on recent reports that have found that sea level rise associated with global warming could adversely affect North America, and its findings suggest that the situation is more threatening than previously believed." (Science Daily)