Climate change biggest threat to health

Insect invasion: Patterns of infection would change, with insect-borne
diseases such as malaria and dengue fever spreading more easily.
Senior doctors in the U.K. recently published a report warning that
climate change is the biggest threat to global health of the 21st
century. Rising global temperatures would have a catastrophic effect
on human health, the doctors said, and patterns of infection would
change, with insect-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever
spreading more easily.Heat waves such as occurred in Europe in 2003,
which caused up to 70,000 "excess" deaths, will become more common, as
will hurricanes, cyclones and storms, causing flooding and
injuries."We have not just underestimated but completely neglected and
ignored this issue," said Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, which
published the report commissioned from University College London. The
lead author of the report, Professor Anthony Costello, a paediatrician
who works on maternal and newborn health in the developing world, said
his own views had changed. "I thought there were other priorities 18
months ago," he said. Now he believed that mitigating the impact of
rising temperatures was urgent. "Every year we delay, the costs go up.
We are setting up a world for our children and grandchildren that may
be extremely turbulent."The biggest impact could be in food and water
shortages, which in the past have led to war and mass migration. Prof
Hugh Montgomery, of UCL's institute for human health and performance,
who was one of the report's authors, noted that Mikhael Gorbachev had
linked 21 recent conflicts to water instability. The report says that
the poorest people in the world will be worst affected. Although the
carbon footprint of the poorest billion people is about 3 per cent of
the world's total footprint, loss of life is expected to be 500 times
greater in Africa than in the wealthy countries. Despite improvements
in health, 10 million children still die every year, more than 200
million children under five are not developing as well as they should,
800 million people are hungry, and 1,500 million people do not have
clean drinking water. All those things could worsen very
significantly, the report says. The impact of heat waves, flooding and
global food shortages will be felt in Britain too, the authors warned.
"This is an immediate danger. It is going to affect you and it will
certainly affect your children. While there is the injustice that the
poorest will be worst affected, you will be affected too," said
Montgomery.The report says evidence on greenhouse gas emissions,
temperature and sea-level rises, the melting of ice-sheets, ocean
acidification and extreme climatic events suggests the forecasts by
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 might be too
conservative. The U.K. target, to limit global warming to two degrees
more, is unlikely to be achieved. Costello, however, said the message
from the report was not entirely negative. "There is an awful lot we
can do," he said. Reducing carbon emissions would encourage people to
cut use of vehicles, and if that led to more walking and cycling it
would tend to lower stress levels, reduce obesity, and lessen heart
disease, lung disease and stroke risks.

The Hindu, 28th May 2009