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Global Warming May Promote Disease and Other Health Problems
by
findingDulcinea Staff
U.S. and international public health experts warn that climate change may increase the spread of infectious diseases and pose other human health risks.
30-Second Summary
On April 9, a senior scientist for the federal Centers for Disease Control told Congress that “major human health problems” are anticipated from climate change, including increased air pollution and the more rapid spread of infectious diseases such as West Nile virus, malaria, dengue fever and Lyme disease.
Extreme heat waves, higher carbon dioxide levels, increased solar radiation and water shortages caused by climate change all pose threats to human health.
Resulting health problems will likely include breathing and respiratory problems, greater risk of infection and increased stress, according to international public health experts who gathered to discuss the issue at a rural health conference held in Australia in March 2008.
A 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that the human health impacts of climate change, though relatively small at the time, were expected to “progressively increase in all countries and regions.”
But the World Health Organization says certain areas of the world are more vulnerable, with developing countries and crowded coastal cities bearing the brunt of climate change-induced health problems.
As such warnings mount, worrying about global warming has become a health problem in itself. Psychotherapist Jenny Packard, citing a study linking global warming to depression, told New Zealand newspaper The Dominion that media coverage of climate issues has cultivated an “insidious background of fear” that can “increase anxiety in those already suffering from excessive worry.”
Extreme heat waves, higher carbon dioxide levels, increased solar radiation and water shortages caused by climate change all pose threats to human health.
Resulting health problems will likely include breathing and respiratory problems, greater risk of infection and increased stress, according to international public health experts who gathered to discuss the issue at a rural health conference held in Australia in March 2008.
A 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that the human health impacts of climate change, though relatively small at the time, were expected to “progressively increase in all countries and regions.”
But the World Health Organization says certain areas of the world are more vulnerable, with developing countries and crowded coastal cities bearing the brunt of climate change-induced health problems.
As such warnings mount, worrying about global warming has become a health problem in itself. Psychotherapist Jenny Packard, citing a study linking global warming to depression, told New Zealand newspaper The Dominion that media coverage of climate issues has cultivated an “insidious background of fear” that can “increase anxiety in those already suffering from excessive worry.”
Headline Links: Climate change in human terms
Senior CDC official Howard Frumkin told a congressional hearing that “major anticipated health” threats include heat waves posing danger to elderly and impoverished people, drought and flooding, air pollution, and increases in foodborne and waterborne infectious disease and the migration of diseases like Lyme, West Nile, Malaria and dengue fever due to altered seasonal patterns.
Source: New York Times
A March 2008 national rural health conference discussed predicted impacts of climate change on families and children, including disrupted agriculture, breathing and respiratory problems, problems with domestic hygiene and infection, and increased family stress. “We are not talking about new problems that people haven’t had before in severe droughts. We are talking about them becoming long-term, and at some level permanent,” said Tony McMichael, director of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University.
Source: The Australian
Oregon state epidemiologist Dr. Mel Kohn explains climate change in “distinctly human terms,” outlining the potential effects of heat waves, increased carbon dioxide levels, diminished snowpack, increased solar radiation, and water shortages. Kohn encourages people to make efforts to “counteract global warming” in order to improve their health. “If we get people out of their cars, not only do we reduce pollution, but we also get them walking,” he said.
Source: Oregonian
Opinion and Analysis: ‘Fear itself’ as a symptom, global warming’s death toll
In The Dominion Post, psychotherapist Jenny Packard discusses a University of Melbourne study linking global warming to depression, arguing that the media has cultivated an “insidious background of fear” about global warming. Australian researcher Grant Blashki concurs: “People with depression and anxiety have a low threshold to taking on the negative information about climate change, which feeds into a hopelessness about the future.”
Source: The Dominion Post
In an editorial, Simon Lewis questions why “there is no comprehensive global monitoring program to document the lives lost due to climate change.” The only global estimate (150,000 deaths per year) is provided by the World Health Organization, and comes from a 2002 study that accounted for deaths only from malaria, malnutrition, diarrhea and flooding. The estimate is “highly conservative” and “considerably out of date,” Lewis argues.
Source: The Guardian
Background Links: Direct and indirect human costs, unequal risks
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web site reports findings of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The panel concluded that “human beings are exposed to climate change directly through changing weather patterns (for example, more intense and frequent extreme events) and indirectly through changes in water, air, food quality and quantity, ecosystems, agriculture, and economy.” The effects, though minor at the time, were projected to “progressively increase in all countries and regions.”
Source: Environmental Protection Agency
According to the World Health Organization, “the impacts of climate on human health will not be evenly distributed around the world.” Certain areas of the world, including developing countries and crowded coastal areas, are considered especially at risk.
Source: World Health Organization
Reference: Climate change facts and resources
The World Health Organization provides links to additional information on its Web site, including a climate change fact sheet, climate terminology for health practitioners, and frequently asked questions about the connection between climate and human health.
Source: World Health Organization
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