Think Climate Change is for the birds?

SHOOT: If you're older you're at risk. And if your house is in an area prone to flooding or long periods of drought, expect your troubles to worsen.

Economist.com: The impact of hotter summers on human health is likely to be significant, with the elderly, for example, notably at risk. British scientists point to wetter winters (and thus the risk of more river flooding), especially in the north of the country, and to hotter and drier summers, which could become particularly harsh in larger cities in the south, notably London.

Stronger storms, and bigger surges of sea water, are expected to threaten the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic and Alaska, carrying obvious threats to bridges and ports constructed in times when the weather was more clement. The north of America is likely to get wetter, but some cold bits of the country might benefit from longer growing seasons and less harsh winters.

clipped from www.economist.com In America, on Tuesday June 16th, a team of scientists representing different federal agencies offered some grim reading. Their report begins with a gloomy but plausible assumption that politicians will fail to agree upon mandatory caps on emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon, which are helping to warm the planet. It then sketches out different scenarios, which vary according to economic and population growth at home and abroad, and by the development of technology. Broadly, these are pessimistic. Temperatures across the United States are expected to rise, on average, within a range of 2.2-6.4ºC (4-11.5ºF) by the end of this century. The south-east of the country, for example, could endure prolonged summers, of 100 days or more, in which temperatures reach 32ºC (90ºF) and above. The region would become much drier, as would the west. The centre of the country would become much hotter and even Alaska would lose much of its permafrost.