The death toll from Britain’s biggest freeze for decades reached 22 today, reports The Times - and this is before we see what is slated to be the coldest night so far.That, however, only takes into account the immediate, observable deaths associated with accidents and other incidents. But, as the BBC admits, cold is a silent killer.
Last year's low temperatures saw the highest number of "excess deaths" - the number of those who perished over and above what is normal for the time of year - for nearly a decade.
These amounted to 40,000 in England and Wales and represented a rise of nearly 50 percent over the previous year. In the South East, where people were perhaps least prepared for a cold snap, deaths nearly doubled.
Given that this year we are experiencing much harsher conditions, one can expect a similar toll, representing a major medical emergency. Although estimates vary, the heat wave in France in the summer of 2003 produced about 15,000 deaths. By that measure, cold is a much more potent killer.
To that, we must add the economic cost, currently estimated as around £700 million. That does not include losses arising from the sudden interruption of gas supplies from Norway arising from a breakdown in the pipeline system.
And, for all Monbiot's prattling, this is not "freak" weather – it is part of a pattern that has been with us for three years, the inevitable result of an established cooling cycle, where we have seen each of the last three winters more severe than the rest.
I checked our own blog and we have written over 150 posts on "snow" worldwide, building up a picture of deteriorating conditions. Then, last March we were pointing out that all the signs were there, pointing to an established cooling cycle.
Now, when you get a "freak" event, that is indeed "weather". This is precisely what the French heat wave was. But we are seeing fundamental changes in the weather cycle which reflect a consistent pattern over three years. That is beginning to look more like "climate."
This is, of course, why the likes of Bastardi and Corbyn have been able to predict that we were in for a bad winter, when the Met Office could not. The fact is that the orthodoxy is blinded by Mann-made global warming and cannot see the snow for the tree-rings.
With many local authorities employing more climate change advisors than they have gritter trucks, we are now paying for that folly. Many are paying with their lives, unable to afford the fuel bills that the warmists have been keen to inflate in order to "save the planet" from the hypothetical risk of CO2 – to say nothing of filling their pockets.
But, if The Times is reporting 22 deaths here, immediate victims of the cold, in India, they are reporting a death toll of 195. Fortunately for that multi-millionaire thief Pachauri – tucked up in his luxury mansion at 160 Golf Links – he will be warm and toasty while those he helps keeps in poverty perish from the cold.
CLIMATE CHANGE – NEW THREAD
