Global Warming & Health

“Climate change is a significant and emerging threat to public health”—the World Health Organization.

Global warming threatens public health in many important ways:

1. Infectious diseases are more likely to spread north from tropical areas as the planet warms. In the summer of 2007, the Chikungunya virus traveled from tropical climates to Southern Europe for the first time, causing an outbreak in Ravenna, Italy.
2. Excess rainfall leads to increased flooding which threatens clean water supplies and cropland. Outbreaks of dysentery and other diarrheal illnesses will increase as floods ensue, and farms may become less productive.
3. People living on a hotter planet are likely to experience more heat emergencies. The Chicago heat wave of 1995 resulted in more than 500 excess deaths; the European heat wave of 2003 led to as many as 35,000 excess deaths across the continent.
4. Changing rainfall patterns can lead to more parts of the world affected by drought and ensuing crop failures and malnutrition. Many parts of Africa, particularly war-plagued Darfur, suffer endless drought cycles, leading to starvation and political instability.
5. More air pollution increases the burden of asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide boost pollen rates, resulting in more asthma and allergy symptoms.

You can read a summary of the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change here: http://www.ipcc-wg2.org/
You can learn more about the how the World Health Organization’s assessment of global warming and health risks here:
http://www.who.int/globalchange/news/fsclimandhealth/en/index.html