Infectious diseases and death rates rise:

Global warming leads to 150,000 deaths every year

by Larry West

Research data published in the journal *Nature* show that global warming may affect human health in a surprising number of ways: speeding the spread of infectious diseases such as malaria and dengue fever creating conditions that lead to potentially fatal malnutrition and diarrhea; and increasing the likelihood of heat waves and floods.

Hardest on poor nations

According to the scientists, who have mapped the growing health impacts of global warming, the data show that global warming affects different regions in very different ways.

Global warming is particularly hard on people in poor countries, which is ironic, because the places that have contributed the least to global warming are most vulnerable to the death and disease higher temperatures can bring.

“Those least able to cope and least responsible for the greenhouse gases that cause global warming are most affected,” said lead author Jonathan Patz, a professor at UW-Madison’s Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. “Herein lies an enormous global ethical challenge.”

According to the *Nature* report, regions at highest risk for enduring the health effects of climate change include coastlines along the Pacific and Indian oceans and sub-Saharan Africa. Large sprawling cities, with their urban “heat island” effect are also prone to temperature-related health problems.Africa has some of the lowest per-capita emissions of greenhouse gases.

Yet, regions of the continent are gravely at risk for diseases related to global warming.

“Many of the most important diseases in poor countries, from malaria to diarrhea and malnutrition, are highly sensitive to climate,” said co-author Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum of WHO. “The health sector is already struggling to control these diseases and climate change threatens to undermine these efforts.”

“Recent extreme climatic events have underscored the risks to human health and survival,” added Tony McMichael, Director of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University.

“This synthesizing paper points the way to strategic research that better assesses the risks to health from global climate change.”

Global responsibilities

The United States, which currently emits more greenhouse gases than any other nation, has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, choosing instead to initiate a separate multinational effort with less ambitious goals.

Patz and his colleagues say their work demonstrates the moral obligation of countries with high per-capita emissions, such as the United States and European nations, to take the lead in reducing the health threats of global warming.

Their work also highlights the need for large, fast-growing economies, such as China and India, to develop sustainable energy policies.

“The political resolve of policymakers will play a big role in harnessing the man-made forces of climate change,” said Patz,took all that away. I will never forgive myself. The public frenzy that was created in the aftermath of her death haunted me for many a night afterwards, dissolving the image I had built about my self, and collapsing that which others had about me.

“Even if I had realised that you would be the one to ruin my career, to take me through the strain and humiliation of a court battle that I was never keen on winning, I do not know whether I would have done things differently. I did what I could. Oh, my good man, I did what I could. I wish I could have saved her, and another doctor in my position would probably have been able to do so. But I did what I could, and it just wasn’t enough.

Time to go.

“You may be cursing my cowardice, but I did not commit myself to death today.

“I somehow knew that today would be the day my heart would finally give up. When you reach the edge of the cliff, your mind and soul can hear the bells toll from far away. It’s time for me to go. Forgive me, if you can. But in all humility,

“I ask of you, to please take a good look at me as I lay amongst the satin white cushions within my casket. Am I not, was I not.....a mere human being?”