Even the weather is racist

Get a load of this article, courtesy of WorldNetDaily. It starts out:

A new study released by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation suggests rising temperatures will kill more black citizens than whites in the U.S., while claiming African-Americans are less responsible than others for causing so-called "global warming."

The research, conducted by the Oakland, Calif.-based group Redefining Progress, is being billed as the first-ever comprehensive examination of the health and economic impact of climate change on the black population.

Ever hear that joke in which God calls several newspaper editors to tell them he's calling the whole Planet Earth thing quits tomorrow? The resulting Washington Post headline reads: "World to End Tomorrow," with the subheading, "women, minorities hardest hit." I bring up the joke because apparently the Congressional Black Caucus doesn't realize that the stuff they come up with sounds like parody. Further on in the article:

The research also says at the present time, blacks are more likely to die during extreme heat events.

"The most direct health effect of climate change will be intensifying heat waves that selectively impact poor and urban populations," according to the study, noting cities like New York, Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia have large concentrations of blacks.

Why the poor urban populations?  It's pretty obvious:  the poor sometimes lack air conditioning, and this can be a killer for the elderly or infirm when it is really hot.  And a greater concentration of the elderly and infirm live in "urban areas," because that's where they are nearer to hospitals and other caregivers.  Anyway, I point this out to help you connect the dots between these claims and those made in the big carbon dioxide lawsuit just yesterday. In that suit, eight states and New York City join together to sue five giant utilities that own, in aggregate, 174 fossil-fuel burning plants.

Now, I'm open to being corrected here, but for a fossil fuel plant to drive their carbon dioxide emissions to zero, isn't the only option to produce zero energy? I mean, when you burn oil, or coal, or natural gas, you get carbon dioxide. There's nothing to be done about that. You might squeeze a few extra kilowatt-hours out of the same emissions with a slightly more efficient plant, but there are absolute limits to that efficiency! Following through then, if we produce less energy, won't it be more expensive for poor people to run their air conditioners? Won't more poor people die, or do you really think that one country shutting down its power plants will prevent heat waves?

Stepping back another pace, does the Congressional Black Caucus mind that this lawsuit could result in more of the kind of deaths they claim to want to avoid?