Climate crisis seriously damaging human health, report finds

Listening to the radio a few minutes ago, with interviews of Britains regarding Trump's visit there. Someone who likes him spoke approvingly of being focused on the well-being of one's own country. But our own well-being depends on the well-being of those in other countries. Pollution, including climate disruption, does not recognize country boundaries. Problems in other countries cause an increase in immigration to safer places. People in other countries can't buy our products if they are impoverished. The cure for things like cancer will come sooner if countries around the world are able to nurture scientists and future scientists.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/03/climate-crisis-seriously-damaging-human-health-report-finds

Damian Carrington Environment editor
Mon 3 Jun 2019 12.57 EDT

A report by experts from 27 national science academies has set out the widespread damage global heating is already causing to people’s health and the increasingly serious impacts expected in future.

Scorching heatwaves and floods will claim more victims as extreme weather increases but there are serious indirect effects too, from spreading mosquito-borne diseases to worsening mental health.

“There are impacts occurring now [and], over the coming century, climate change has to be ranked as one of the most serious threats to health,” said Prof Sir Andrew Haines, a co-chair of the report for the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (Easac).

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The World Health Organization director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned in November that climate breakdown was already a health crisis. “We cannot delay action on climate change,” he said. “We cannot sleepwalk through this health emergency any longer.” In December, a WHO report said tackling the climate crisis would save at least a million lives a year, making it a moral imperative to act.

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The scientists were also concerned by the effect of extreme weather on food production, with studies showing a 5-25% cut in staple crop yields across the Mediterranean region in coming decades. But the report said even small cuts in meat eating could lead to significant cuts in carbon emissions, as well as benefits to health.

The report anticipates the spread of infectious diseases in Europe as temperatures rise and increase the range of mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever and ticks that cause Lyme disease. Food poisoning could also rise, as salmonella bacteria thrived in warmer conditions, the report said. It even found research suggesting antibiotic resistance in E coli increases in hotter conditions.

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“We are subjecting young people and future generations to these increasing [health] risks for many hundreds of years to come, if not millennia,” he said. “We have to try to minimise the effects and move towards a low-carbon economy.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/18/we-all-smell-the-smoke-we-all-feel-the-heat-this-environmental-catastrophe-is-global


We all smell the smoke, we all feel the heat. This environmental catastrophe is global
Alexis Wright
May 17, 2019