PLEASE NOTE:
*
CCNet SPECIAL: NATURAL CATASTROPHE THAT IS KILLING THOUSANDS
WHILE MEDIA IS TURNING A BLIND EYE
--------------------------------------------------------------
"The worst winter storms for a generation
have left Europe blanketed
in snow from the Bosphorus to the Baltic,
leaving hundreds dead,
cutting off thousands of communities and
severing major transport
links."
--Julius
Strauss, The Daily Telegraph, 5 January 2002
"More than 20,000 old people died of
cold-related illnesses in
England and Wales last winter, according to
Help the Aged statistics
published yesterday. The charity said the
Government's fuel poverty
strategy would fail to reduce this number if
further urgent action
was not taken."
--The Daily Telegraph, 28 December 2001
"In George Orwell's novel `Nineteen
Eighty-Four', the concept of
`doublethink' was first introduced, the
notion that mutually
exclusive concepts could co-exist in the
minds of even the best
intellectuals of the day. Orwell's day
of DoubleThink has already
arrived. The close of 2001 has seen an
unprecedented outbreak of
cold events. Long-standing cold records
are being broken all over
the world, not just from the northern
winter, but also from the
southern summer. December is proving to
be the coolest first summer
month in much of southeastern Australia,
the Sydney arsonist-lit
bushfires notwithstanding. But the
industry has quickly put on its
blinkers. "2001 is the 2nd warmest
year on record" they tell us. If
this is the `2nd warmest', Heaven
protect us all from a `normal'
year, or even worse - a colder year than
`normal'."
--John Daly, 31 December 2001
(1) WORST WINTER STORMS FOR A GENERATION HIT EUROPE
The Daily Telegraph, 5 January 2002
(2) CLIMATIC CATASTROPHES STRIKE
Yahoo! News, 28 December 2001
(3) STATE OF EMERGENCY: ATHENS SNOWED IN
News 24, 5 January 2002
(4) EASTERN EUROPE DIGS OUT FROM SNOW AS COLD DEATHS CLIMB
Center for Desease Information, 4 January 2002
(5) SOUTHERN U.S. CHILL EXTENDS AS FAR SOUTH AS MIAMI
Reuters, 5 January 2002
(6) COLD 'KILLED 20,000 OLD PEOPLE LAST WINTER'
The Daily Telegraph, 28 December 2001
(7) GLOBAL WARMING AND CHEAP FOSSIL FULES: THEY'RE GOOD FOR YOU!
CO2 Science Magazine, 2 January 202
(8) FREAK STORMS KILL FIVE IN EUROPE
Reuters, 5 January 2002
================
(1) WORST WINTER STORMS FOR A GENERATION HIT EUROPE
>From The Daily Telegraph, 5 January 2002
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/05/wcold05.xml&sSheet=/portal/2002/01/05/por_right.html
By Julius Strauss, Central Europe Correspondent
THE worst winter storms for a generation have left Europe
blanketed in
snow from the Bosphorus to the Baltic, leaving hundreds dead,
cutting
off thousands of communities and severing major transport links.
In normally balmy Athens there were the first snowfalls in more
than a
decade. As much as a foot of snow let children snowboard in the
city's
streets and left many workers stranded at home. "It looks
like a
holiday," said one Athenian.
On the Acropolis hill, snow swirled around the Parthenon and
guards
threw snowballs while Japanese and Spanish tourists huddled
against the
weather.
In Istanbul, Turks woke up to a foot of snow. "We advise our
citizens to
stay home unless they absolutely have to go out," the city
governor,
Erol Cakir, said. "This is a natural disaster."
Local television reported that around 9,000 Turkish villages were
cut
off by snow, some without power.
The cold snap extended as far south as Cyprus yesterday. There
were
heavy snowfalls on the mountains, strong winds, thunderstorms and
rough
seas.
The bad weather also hit hard in Central Europe, with a total of
71
people reported to have died in Hungary as a result of the cold.
In Poland, more than 220 deaths have been blamed on the storms
and
temperatures have plunged to as low as -29C. Authorities said
many of
the victims were homeless people, or drunks who fell over and
were
unable to get up in the cold. A number also died in avalanches.
More than 500 Polish villages were cut off and many villagers
said food
supplies were dwindling fast.
Around 3,500 schools closed yesterday for a second day as
children
stayed at home rather than brave the freezing weather.
Lorries jack-knifed on icy roads, blocking them for hours.
Motorists
reported that the journey from Warsaw to Krakow, normally four
hours,
was taking 18.
The Polish interior ministry said the weather was the worst since
1979.
In the Czech Republic temperatures dropped to as low as -25C. A
third of
the country's inhabited areas were reported to be cut off by
heavy
snowfalls and had declared a state of emergency.
Farmers said they feared for their livestock after animals were
caught
in drifts and food supplies were unable to get through.
Snowploughs were
struggling to clear drifts up to 15 feet high on motorways.
In Slovakia 40 villages in the central Zilina region were cut off
and
local authorities described the situation in some as critical.
The Slovak president, Rudolf Schuster, and his wife were slightly
injured when their car slid on ice.
In Germany heavy snowfalls were blamed for an avalanche which
killed one
skier and left three others missing.
At the Black Sea ports of Constanta and Mangalia in Romania
maritime
traffic was suspended because of high winds. Waves reached 23
feet and
some ships were damaged.
There were huge delays on trains and a freight engine was
derailed
because of snow.
In Sweden, Stockholm offered residents free undercover parking in
an
attempt to clear cars from snow-clogged streets.
In Italy temperatures in the Dolomites fell to -22C, damaging
fruit and
flowers in the Liguris region.
In France several roads were blocked by flooding including a
section of
motorway between Paris and Strasbourg. Trains were disrupted
between
Metz and Dijon.
Christmas shooting was cancelled in France because ice on swamps
had
deprived birds of their natural food.
Yves Cochet, the environment minister, said the birds were not a
fair
target and should be allowed to "build up their health
again".
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2001.
=============
(2) CLIMATIC CATASTROPHES STRIKE
>From Yahoo! News, 28 December 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/011227/1/27qux.html
Countries around the world were trying to cope with climatic
catastrophe, as a big freeze chilled Europe and North America,
Brazil
recovered from torrential rains, bushfires blazed in an
Australian
heatwave and Saudis prayed for rain to slake an ongoing drought.
North America was plunged into the throes of an intense cold
front that
buried Buffalo, New York in almost one metre (three feet) of snow
and
saw temperatures slide well below freezing.
In Europe, the chill has claimed hundreds of lives. A winter
coldsnap in
Poland has claimed 178 lives since October, according to local
police, a
figure well above the 112 killed by the cold last year.
Authorities in Bulgaria declared a state of emergency in the
northeast
of the country after the worst snowfalls in 30 years, where three
more
people died in the intense cold, according to the civil defense
department.
And in Russia, no stranger to bitter cold, Moscow authorities
said three
people had died in sub-zero temperatures, bringing to 250 the
number to
perish in the city's icy chill this winter....
Countries which usually fairly modest temperatures, such as
Germany,
have reported intense lows, with the southern region of Bavaria
seeing
temperatures of almost minus 46 degrees Celsius (minus 51
Fahrenheit) on
Monday.
The chill is the lowest recorded in the region since 1870, while
hurricane-force winds hit mountainous regions and a heavy blanket
of
snow forced many motorists to stay at home, according to weather
services.
Temperatures in Moscow dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus
four
Fahrenheit) this month, where heavy snowfalls have been recorded.
But, as in Poland, most of those reported to have been killed by
the
bitter weather are homeless people who fall asleep in the open
after
drinking large quantities of alcohol, according to officials.
In Warsaw, where temperatures have fallen well below freezing,
police
say they pick up about 200 people from the streets every day and
take
them to detoxification centres.
In Bulgaria, which is one of Europe's poorest countries and where
the
heaviest snowfall in decades has covered the country, two men
were found
dead in their unheated homes.
Copyright 2002, AFP
============
(3) STATE OF EMERGENCY: ATHENS SNOWED IN
>From News 24, 5 January 2002
http://news.24.com/News24/World/Europe/0,1113,2-10-19_1127193,00.html
Athens, Greece - Officials declared a state of emergency in the
Athens
area on Saturday after the heaviest snowfall in a decade
blanketed the
capital and disrupted air and road traffic in central and
southern
Greece.
Hundreds of cars and passengers were trapped for nearly 20 hours
by snow
along the main highway connecting Athens with the northern port
of
Thessaloniki. Police, firefighters and army troops were working
to open
the highway and clear the road of trucks that had jack-knifed and
blocked the highway.
Athens received about 15cm in the city centre to about 50-60cm in
the
northern suburbs.
Athens' international airport was closed and snow ploughs worked
to
clear runways and clear aircraft of ice. Highways leading to the
airport
were also blocked by heavy snow. Airport officials said they
expected
flights to resume by early afternoon.
Hospitals in the Athens area were placed in a state of heightened
readiness to deal with any problems.
More than 100 towns in central Greece were cut off by snow and
the
region was also affected by sporadic power outages.
Rare occurrence
The snowfall and subfreezing temperatures were part of a rare
winter
storm affecting many parts of the southern Balkans. Greece's
National
Weather Service forecast improved conditions and an end to the
snowfall
around the country starting late on Saturday and early on Sunday.
In Athens, police warned that snow chains were required for all
vehicles
driving in the centre of the city and appealed for all residents
in the
capital's northern suburbs, most located on the foothills of
Mount
Parnas and Mount Penedli, to remain in their homes.
"It is ridiculous for anyone to leave their homes,"
said regional Athens
governor Eleni Besbea, who declared the state of emergency.
She said more than 20 snow ploughs and earthmoving vehicles were
clearing main streets in and around Athens, while Athens mayor
Dimitris
Avramopoulos ordered salt to be spread on capital's main avenues.
-
copyright 2002, Sapa-AP
===============
(4) EASTERN EUROPE DIGS OUT FROM SNOW AS COLD DEATHS CLIMB
>From Center for Desease Information, 4 January 2002
http://www.cdi.org/russia/187-2.cfm
AFP
January 4, 2002
>From the Baltics to the Balkans, eastern Europeans dug out
from heavy
snowfall that blanketed the region as plunging temperatures
caused a
spate of deaths from severe cold.
With southeastern Europe lashed by the most severe snowstorms in
three
decades, dozens of towns and villages in northeastern Bulgaria
remained
cut off Thursday by snowdrifts up to two metres (six feet) deep.
Several dozen Polish villages also remained completely cut off,
while
180 towns in western Ukraine have remained without electricity
since the
New Year after heavy snowfall and severe winds created drifts
three
metres (nine feet) deep.
Skies cleared across much of eastern Europe Thursday, allowing
road
crews a chance to catch up after a week of intermittent snow, but
temperatures plunged causing a number of deaths from cold.
Seven people were found dead from the cold in Turkey Wednesday,
bringing
the casualty toll from heavy snowstorms and sub-zero temperatures
across
most of the country since the weekend to at least 19, authorities
said.
In Bulgaria a 67-year-old pensioner was found frozen to death in
the
snow near her home outside Burgas, while a tramp died sheltering
near
the entrance to a building, his feet wrapped only plastic bags.
In Moscow, authorities said 14 people had died from cold since
New Year,
including 10 overnight Wednesday, bringing the death toll in the
Russian
capital to 281 since the start of the winter, according to the
Interfax
news agency.
Polish police said a dozen people have died from cold since the
start of
the year, bringing the death toll since October to 221.
Two deaths from hypothermia were reported in the Latvian capital
Riga
over the holidays as temperatures plunged to minus 25 degrees
Centigrade
(minus 13 Fahrenheit).
Rescue workers also had their hands full in several countries on
Thursday.
Twenty seven school children who spent 17 hours trapped in a bus
under
an avalanche in mountainous eastern Turkey were rescued, Anatolia
news
agency reported.
A snowplow managed to free on Thursday a train that got stuck
Wednesday
evening near the Bulgarian city of Silistra. The passengers were
unharmed.
But some 60 tourists remained blocked for a fourth day in a
mountain
hotel near Veliko Tarnovo in central Bulgaria, civil defence
authorities
said.
Several dozen secondary roads in northern Romania remained
impassable
Thursday, with snow removal efforts hampered by wind gusts of up
to 80
kilometers (50 miles) per hour.
In the northern region of Iasi patients had to be taken to
hospital by
sleigh after ambulances could not reach homes.
In Turkey the people of Izmir on the Aegean, known for its
temperate
climate, woke up to their first snowflakes in half a decade,
local
reports said.
In the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, the country's only
subtropical
city, palm branches were breaking from the weight of heavy snow,
with
traffic at a near standstill.
Some 6,000 residents of the city of Volkov near Saint Petersburg
were
living without heat after a pipe burst as the temperature sank to
minus
25 degrees Centigrade (minus 13 Fahrenheit).
In the Czech Republic, school was cancelled until Monday in what
the
private TV station Nova termed "snow holidays".
To the west, many routes were impassable over the German border
and icy
conditions were responsible for a number of fatal road accidents
particularly in the eastern region of Moravia, police announced.
Polish police appealed to drivers to travel only if necessary as
many
secondary roads remained impassable. They recommended drivers
leave
children at home and bring with them a shovel, sand, rope, hot
beverages
and a mobile phone.
About a quarter of Lithuanian secondary roads remained impassable
on
Thursday, with the army on alert to help rescue services if
needed, the
Baltic News Service reported.
Copyright 2002, AP
==============
(5) SOUTHERN U.S. CHILL EXTENDS AS FAR SOUTH AS MIAMI
>From Reuters, 5 January 2002
http://news1.iwon.com/article/id/199072|top|01-05-2002::03:29|reuters.html
By Frances Kerry
MIAMI (Reuters) - The tentacles from winter weather that glazed
the U.S.
South with snow, disrupting air travel and making driving
hazardous,
extended Friday even to usually balmy Miami, where residents
pulled on
sweaters and jackets to deal with south Florida's version of a
big
chill.
Miami temperatures dipped near 40 degrees in the early morning.
The
National Weather Service reported some record lows for the day in
south
Florida, with West Palm Beach touching 36 degrees and Miami Beach
chilling down to 40 degrees overnight.
"For south Florida, this is very cold," said
meteorologist Pablo Santos,
saying icy air had funneled unusually deep into the Florida
peninsula
but predicting milder weather over the weekend.
Friday's misery was short-lived as afternoon temperatures bounced
up to
60 degrees in south Florida and 49 degrees near Orlando, home to
giant
theme park Walt Disney World.
Still, forecasters warned north Florida could see a repeat of
Friday
morning's freezing temperatures early Saturday. Parts of the
Florida
Panhandle saw a rare dusting of snow on Thursday.
The area is better known for its beaches, vacationers and
"snow birds"
-- retirees from northern cities such as New York and Chicago who
migrate every winter to escape snow shovels and heating bills.
The state's tourism marketing agency boasts that Florida's idea
of "the
white stuff" is sand, not snow.
Elsewhere in the usually mild South, states were still icy after
a
winter storm that dumped up to a foot of snow on parts of North
Carolina
and Virginia and killed at least 10 people in the past two days
in
traffic accidents in the Carolinas, Mississippi, Georgia and
Virginia.
The storm eased off by Thursday night but icy conditions
persisted. In
North Carolina, driving was a treacherous ordeal and schools in
many
areas remained closed.
In neighboring South Carolina, most of the 64,000 state employees
were
told to stay home for a second day and residents were told to
avoid
snow-covered roads. Schools in many areas were still closed.
In Richmond, Virginia, state police said all interstate highways
in the
area were clear by Friday though many back roads were still
blocked and
many schools remained closed.
State officials in Georgia were keeping a wary eye on weather
forecasts
that predicted more snow and possible freezing rain over the
weekend.
"They are saying there is going to be moisture and if that
turns out to
be freezing rain or sleet, our primary concern is that we will
start
seeing tree limbs breaking and power lines affected," said
Lisa Ray, a
spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.
Ray said power had been restored to about 5,000 people in the
state who
were without electricity Thursday. The snowfall in Atlanta was
the
heaviest in nine years.
Officials at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport, which
was
virtually paralyzed by the storm Thursday, said Friday afternoon
that
operations were close to normal, with most stranded passengers
having
boarded rescheduled flights.
"All four of the runways are open and operational and we are
almost back
to normal operations and planes are taking off and landing,"
said
Yolanda Clark, a spokeswoman for Hartsfield, one of the world's
busiest
airports.
Clark added that the airport's manager, Ben DeCosta, would be
"reaching
out" to Delta Air Lines and other airlines that operate at
the airport
to discuss how to better deal with future weather-related
problems.
Thousands of passengers were stuck at the Atlanta airport
Thursday after
snow and ice forced airlines to cancel about 600 flights. Some
travelers
had to wait for hours on planes that were stuck on the airport
tarmac.
Delta, the No. 3 U.S. carrier, has apologized to customers for
the
inconvenience and pledged to conduct a thorough review of its
operations
and performance during the storm.
Copyright 2002, Reuters
===============
(6) COLD 'KILLED 20,000 OLD PEOPLE LAST WINTER'
>From The Daily Telegraph, 28 December 2001
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F28%2Fncold28.xml
MORE than 20,000 old people died of cold-related illnesses in
England
and Wales last winter, according to Help the Aged statistics
published
yesterday.
The charity said the Government's fuel poverty strategy would
fail to
reduce this number if further urgent action was not taken.
The statistics were reached by taking the number of deaths of
people
over 65 between December 2000 and March this year, and comparing
them
with the average for the summer and autumn in 2000. A breakdown
shows
that the highest number of "excess deaths" was in the
North-West
(3,600), while the North-East had the fewest with 1,400.
Mervyn Kohler, the charity's head of public affairs, said there
was no
excuse for "a staggeringly high number" of winter
deaths compared with
countries with colder climates.
"This 'bulge' of winter deaths is a peculiarly British
problem," he
said. "When countries with much more severe winters than
ours have much
lower death rates, it becomes obvious that something is badly
wrong."
The charity believes that money needs to be invested in improving
energy
efficiency in old people's homes and to help to pay for central
heating.
It said the current policy of winter fuel payments cost the
taxpayer
several times more than the amount earmarked for housing and
heating
improvements.
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2001.
===========
(7) GLOBAL WARMING AND CHEAP FOSSIL FULES: THEY'RE GOOD FOR YOU!
>From CO2 Science Magazine, 2 January 202
http://www.co2science.org/journal/2002/v5n1c1.htm.
Reference
Gemmell, I. 2001. Indoor heating, house conditions,
and health.
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 55: 928-929.
What was done
The author conducted a detailed analysis of the answers of 858
respondents to pertinent health and housing questions put to them
in the
second sweep of the "West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study,"
which was
conducted in 1991. The response rate to this survey was 82%,
while the
average age of respondents was 59 years.
What was learned
Gemmell's analysis showed that "over and above socioeconomic
factors and
house conditions, inadequate home heating is associated with poor
health
in those aged 55-60." He says, for example, that
"respondents who
reported feeling cold in winter 'most of the time' were over
three times
more likely to suffer from a limiting condition and almost five
times as
likely to report 'fair' or 'poor' self assessed
health." Also noted was
the fact that "living in a cold house will almost certainly
exacerbate
existing conditions and may lead to early mortality."
What it means
In the words of the author, "affordable efficient methods of
home
heating could help reduce the number of people living in homes
that are
detrimental to their health." So also would increases in
minimum air
temperatures help in this regard; while anything that tended to
make
methods of home heating more expensive would be
counterproductive.
On this basis, therefore, the Kyoto Protocol and other such
regulatory
schemes clearly have three strikes against them: (1) their stated
objective of combating global warming, which appears to be most
robust
at the low end of the temperature scale, (2) their inclination to
make
fossil fuel use more costly, and (3) the fact that this policy
will hurt
most those who can least afford to heat their homes, i.e., the
world's
poor.
So it has ever been; and so, it seems, it ever shall be: the poor
are
always the ones to suffer most. And unless enough good
people step
forward to do something about it, the cycle will not be broken.
Copyright © 2002. Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and
Global
Change
==========
(8) FREAK STORMS KILL FIVE IN EUROPE
>From Reuters, 5 January 2002
ATHENS (Reuters) - Freak winter storms have paralysed parts of
southeastern Europe, claiming five lives and prompting Greece to
declare
a state of emergency in some areas.
The storms blanketed much of Turkey and central and southern
Greece with
heavy snow, blocking roads and disrupting flights for a second
day
running.
In Turkey, two men froze to death in the southeast of the
country,
Turkish television reported. Two more died in the capital,
Istanbul, in
the icy temperatures.
Greek police found the body of an elderly woman partly covered by
snow
who had apparently died from the cold in a suburb of the capital,
Athens.
>From the Aegean coast in the west to northern Black Sea
shores,
thousands of Turkish villages were snowbound. The blizzards were
expected to move east across the country in the coming days and
officials warned people not to leave their homes unless it was
necessary.
Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis told reporters it was the
worst
weather in 40 years and asked citizens to take care and limit
their
travel.
"I would like to call on all citizens to be careful and
limit their
movements. This is an unusual phenomenon and beautiful to watch
but also
dangerous," he said.
Athens was covered by up to 20 cm (eight inches) of snow early on
Saturday, a rare occurrence which left streets almost deserted
and shut
down much of Saturday shopping.
The Parthenon temple on top of the Acropolis was closed to
visitors and
children built snowmen and hurled snowballs in Athens' central
Syndagama
square.
FLIGHTS, FERRIES DISRUPTED
In the city's northern suburbs, where it was still snowing
heavily
mid-afternoon, roads were impassable and electricity blackouts
were
frequent.
A Public Power Corporation official said electricity would be
restored
throughout the country by the end of the day.
Flights from Athens international airport were severely
disrupted,
although one runway was open with some planes taking off and
landing.
In Istanbul too, some international and domestic flights were
cancelled
on Saturday as blizzards resumed, airport officials said.
Roads were blocked and ferries across the Bosphorus straits were
cancelled for a second day, Turkey's NTV television said.
The storm, which hit the region on Friday and continued into
Saturday,
forced the Greek government to declare states of emergency in
Attika,
the province in which Athens is located, and two neighbouring
provinces.
Police said hundreds of people had been stranded in cars, some
for as
much as 18 hours, on the main highway leading north from Athens.
They
were freed when crews either cleared the snow or broke down the
central
barriers, allowing them access to other lanes.
Greece's National Meteorological Service said the storm was
expected to
ease later on Saturday.
Copyright 2002, Reuters
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