Natural Disasters killed 220,000 in 2008<\/a><\/p>\nSomehow it all gets pinned on global warming<\/s> \u201cclimate change\u201d. The great thing about \u201cclimate change\u201d is that, no matter what happens, you can blame it. Killed by a cold snap? Climate change. Global warming and freezing to death is a tough sell. \u201cClimate change\u201d (which is, to me, as meaningful as \u201cvariations in fluctuation\u201d) is infinitely more malleable as a concept. It means anything and everything that the weather might do. Of course, there is the pesky fact that the globe has cooled over the past decade and the equally pesky fact that \u201cclimate change\u201d killed fewer people last year (and that people have died by the hundreds of thousands due to climate since forever). But we are commanded by our TVs to accept this as Undeniable Fact, so we\u2019d better get with it.<\/p>\n