The title is an old joke, about how the end of the world would be reported in (I've heard both) the New York Times or Washington Post. It immediately brought to mind this story from 2004 (link long dead):
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Severe weather caused by global warming
can pose greater physical danger to women than men, a Canadian attending a UN conference on climate change said Friday."For instance, often women don't know how to swim, so in a flood situation that can lead to a higher instance of death or injury," Angie Daze, a program manager with a Canadian group called Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change, said.
Which leads us inexorably to:
Immigrants are at higher risk for drowning when boating and swimming than people born in Canada, according to new research being released Thursday by the Lifesaving Society.The study, believed to be the first of its kind in Canada, shows that despite plans by 79 per cent of newcomers to be in and around water this summer, they are four times more likely to be unable to swim.
Almost 20 per cent of immigrants are unable to swim, compared with just 4 per cent of people born in Canada, according to the study, which polled 1,032 Canadians between the ages of 18 and 60 in April and May.
Provincial coroners don’t keep death statistics by ethnicity or nationality, so the Lifesaving Society’s research provides the first statistical-based look at drowning risk for this group.
The study comes in the wake of what is turning out to be a deadly month at pools and swimming holes in Ontario.
Since the end of June, 13 people have drowned including Deep Engineer, one of two 14-year-old boys who died after being pulled from a Scarborough condo pool. The boy didn’t know how to swim, friends say.
“In India, nobody has access to pools. You don’t learn to swim,” said the boy’s uncle, Veejay Sonal, adding that Engineer’s family immigrated to Canada in 2001.
Anyone who names their kid Deep Engineer is clearly mocking the gods; how else to explain the survival of his brother, Shallow?
Via Blazing Cat Fur