Six new indicators of climate change - covering various mortality and suicide and specific health case statistics

In this UK ONS blog post (Office of National Statistics) Myer Glickman (ONS - Head of Climate and Global Health) reports that the United Nations Statistical Commission is incorporating six new indicators into the Global Set of Climate Change Related Indicators and Statistics. The headlines for the six new indicators are:

• Diarrhoea cases attributable to extreme temperatures and extreme rainfall
• Malaria cases attributable to extreme temperatures and extreme rainfall
• Mortality attributable to high and low temperatures
• Suicides attributable to extreme heat
• Mortality attributable to wildfire-related PM2.5 (this post note - Fine particulate matter)

Apparently this is the culmination of four years of work and as part of that various reports reports and technical papers based on the best scientific knowledge available and up-to-date statistical methods.  These can be found at the UN-hosted website or the open document platform Zenodo.

Here is a  summary of the whole project that was released 9th June 2026.

Hat Tip for image above - Image by ELG21 from Pixabay 

14min 36sec clip - Climate change is making many houses uninsurable. Is this a disaster in the making?

Published today, an OBR report says an ageing population, climate change, rising geopolitical tensions and other pressures will eventually put the UK public finances on an unsustainable path. “The first step to solving a problem is admitting there is one.”

Published today, the UK's Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) published a Fiscal risks and sustainability report, which is the latest update of their assessment of the current pressures on the public finances.

The report was initially scheduled for publication on 2 July 2024 but due to the UK General Election its release was postponed to today, 12th September.  The delay didn't alter the report's content, which is based on OBR's March 2024 Economic and fiscal outlook and government policy as it stood at the time of the 2024 Spring Budget presented by the previous Government on 6 March 2024.

In this, their 3rd annual Fiscal risks and sustainability report (FRS), the OBR focus on three risks to the long-term fiscal outlook: the potential economic and fiscal costs of climate-related damage; the impact of changing health trends on the public finances; and an updated set of long-range fiscal projections, including alternative scenarios concerning productivity and migration.

The OBR's report goes on to say "The analysis in this report shows that, based on policy settings in March 2024, these and other pressures would eventually put the public finances on an unsustainable path. Over the next 50 years, public spending is projected to rise from 45 to over 60 per cent of GDP, while revenues remain at around 40 per cent of GDP (Chart 1.1). As a result, debt would rise rapidly from the late 2030s to 274 per cent of GDP in their baseline projection. 

Longterm projections such as these are inherently highly uncertain but there is a similar upward debt trajectory in nearly all the alternative scenarios that we consider. Indeed, debt is projected to rise further to over 300 per cent of GDP, when further shocks and pressures are taken into account. 

In practice, if these pressures and shocks were to materialise as we project, then governments would need to take mitigating policy action to prevent this debt spiral from occurring. On our baseline projection, to return debt to its pre-pandemic levels would require an average fiscal tightening of 1.5 per cent of GDP per decade over the next 50 years".

Climate Change

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— Ken Bardsley (@kenbar.bsky.social) Aug 17, 2024 at 11:14 AM

9min clip - Is the Atlantic Ocean circulation approaching a tipping point?

#COP28 Impact of Climate Change on Human Health

 

The climate crisis impacts human health in numerous ways. Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Figure 6: UK businesses' concern about the impact of climate change on their business decreases with business size 

 Percentage of businesses not permanently stopped trading and their level of concern about the impact of climate change by size (number of employees), UK, 20 September to 2 October 2022

Figure 5: The transportation and storage industry is most likely to report being very concerned about the impact of climate change on their business, at 22%. 

 Percentage of businesses not permanently stopped trading and their level of concern about the impact of climate change by industry, UK, 20 September to 2 October 2022  

Figure 3: The percentage of UK businesses reporting climate change-related strategic actions generally increases with business size 

Percentage of businesses not permanently stopped trading who reported taking strategic actions to protect the environment by size (number of employees), UK, 20 September to 2 October 2022 Source: Office for National Statistics – Business Insights and Conditions Survey

ONS Graphic - Around three-quarters (76%) of adults were very or somewhat worried about the rising cost of living and climate change

 

Source: ONS

3min clip - The Dire Difference Between 1.5 And 2 Degrees Of Warming

an @ONS graphic - The most common reasons for not making lifestyle changes were thinking that they make would not have any effect on climate change, or believing large polluters should change before individuals

Reasons for adults (aged 16 years and over) not making lifestyle changes to tackle climate change, by age, Great Britain, 6 to 17 October 2021 source

an @ONS graphic - Those worried about the impact of climate change were more likely to make lifestyle changes to help tackle it

Proportion of adults (aged 16 years and over) who made lifestyle changes to help tackle climate change, by demographic and level of worry, Great Britain, 6 to 17 October 2021 source

an @ONS graphic - Younger age groups appeared slightly more likely to report being very anxious about the future of the environment

Proportion of adults (aged 16 years and over) and level of anxiety about the future of the environment over the past month, by demographic, Great Britain, 6 to 17 October 2021 source

an @ONS graphic - Women were more likely than men to be worried about the impact of climate change

Proportion of adults (aged 16 years and over) and level of worry about the impact of climate change, by demographic, Great Britain, 6 to 17 October 2021 source

9min clip - after #climate change why the best place to live in the #US will be the #Rust Belt

found via a boingboing email

11m 33sec @voxdotcom clip - The global #coffee #crisis is coming

7min 43sec @theeconomist clip - The carbon cycle is key to understanding climate change |

4min 37sec @voxdotcom clip - Avoiding high-emission foods can have a bigger #climate impact than any other consumption change

text from youtube "Our consumption habits emit billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Our diets account for one-fourth of those emissions.

The food we eat emits so many greenhouse emissions because of the land it takes to grow it, but it also has something to do with biology. This video explains why the production of some foods emit more than others, and which foods to avoid to be a more climate-conscious consumer. "

7min @RSAEvents clip - Ten Years to Save the #World with Christiana Figueres

text from youtube " We have 10 years to turn the tide on the climate crisis. We must choose our future.

In this Spotlight, Christiana Figueres, the public face of the most pivotal climate agreement in history, the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, and political strategist Tom Rivett-Carnac, lay out the realities of life on Earth by 2050 if we fail to meet the Paris Agreement climate targets; and how it will look and feel to live in a carbon neutral, regenerative world if we do."