Kansas Climate Profile by Robert Ferguson Table of Contents I. Summary for Policy Makers 3 II. Observed Climate Change in Kansas 4 A. Temperature 4 B. Precipitation 6 C. Drought 7 D. Floods 9 E. Tornadoes 13 F. World-Wide Statistics on Deaths 19 III. Public Health Impacts 20 A. Temperature-related Mortality 20 B. “Tropical” Diseases 22 IV. Future Climate projections 27 V. Emissions “Savings” 30 VI. Impact of climate-mitigation measures in Kansas 31 VII. Costs of Federal Regulation 34 VIII. Kansas Scientists reject un climate hypothesis 36 Summary IX. References 37 X. Some Essential Readings in Climate Science 39 Robert Ferguson, President
[email protected] 5501 Merchants View Square # 209 Haymarket, VA 20169 www.scienceandpublicpolicy.org (202) 288-5699 2 I. Summary for Policy Makers n October 18, 2007, The Kansas Department of Health and OEnvironment rejected a request to build two new 700-megawatt coal-fired electricity generating power plants, citing concerns over the contribution of the proposed plants’ carbon dioxide emissions to climate change and “the potential harm to our environment and health.” In making this finding, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment had to ignore all of the known climate history of the state of Kansas, established climate science as well as the climate model projections for the future climate of the state of Kansas. Both observations and projections clearly demonstrate that: Kansans have neither experienced nor are predicted to experience negative effects from climate variations and