The UN COP29 meeting starting Nov 11th, fights for relevance in the shadow of the US Election, like a suckerfish under an aircraft carrier.
The latest confected attempt to get attention is to guilt trip the West — telling us that women and babies will die if we don't install enough solar panels. This is despite humans being mammals which evolved to cope with the heat and the cold. We live a more closeted, protected existence than any time in the last million years. Not many people give birth in caves these days. Indeed we're a species that inhabits towns with monthly temperatures that vary by 90 degrees Celsius and we are supposed to panic about another half a degree?
The truth is that being cold, poor and hungry increases stillbirths just as much as any heatwave, and the thing that saves babies on a hot day is an air-conditioner. The answer to all four killers thus, is cheap electricity and fossil fuels.
One day history students will study how the UN uses biblical paraphrasing to demand their tithe and control:
Miscarriages due to climate crisis a 'blind spot' in action plans - reportNaturally, only babies that die from heat stress are politically marketable, the UN doesn't care about the ones that die from the cold:The report follows an ultimatum from the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on the climate emergency: "We're playing with fire, but there can be no more playing for time. We're out of time." He said global heating was supercharging monster hurricanes, bringing biblical floods and turning forests into tinderboxes, and said governments had to rapidly wean the world off its fossil fuel addiction.
Increasing climate extremes are causing more lost babies, premature births and cognitive damage to newborns, the report said. For example, a study in India found a doubled risk of miscarriage in pregnant women suffering heat stress, while another in California found a significant association between long-term heat exposure and stillbirth and premature birth.Awkwardly, cold temperatures also cause stillbirths and miscarriages (Ruan et al) so if man-made climate change is warming the world, it must be saving babies too. Shh!
Comment: And this is at a time when people are already struggling to get by due to record inflation. Further, once again we see just how vulnerable the supply chain is: