Chicken Littleism: More Weather Deaths?

The warmist mongerers are at it again. They claim deaths from weather caused by fossil fuels are on the increase. Really?

The annual number of deaths caused by tornadoes, floods and hurricanes, of course, varies. For example, the number of persons killed by these weather events in 1972 was 703 while the number killed in 1988 was 72. But amid this variance is a clear trend: The number of weather-related fatalities, especially since 1980, has dropped dramatically.

For the 30-year span of 1980-2009, the average annual number of Americans killed by tornadoes, floods and hurricanes was 194—fully one-third fewer deaths each year than during the 1940-1979 period. The average annual number of deaths for the years 1980-2009 falls even further, to 160 from 194, if we exclude the deaths attributed to Hurricane Katrina, most of which were caused by a levee that breached on the day after the storm struck land.

This decline in the absolute number of deaths caused by tornadoes, floods and hurricanes is even more impressive considering that the population of the United States more than doubled over these years—to 308 million in 2010 from 132 million in 1940.

And I guess death from heat exhaustion in the summer from lack of electricity for fans and AC or pneumonia and colds in the winter from lack of heat don't count.

Donald Boudreaux: More Weather Deaths? Wanna Bet? - WSJ.com