Climate health warning sounded
Friday, 25 Jan 2008 10:26
Climate change to have "huge" impact upon human health
Science In Focus
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The impact of climate change upon global health levels will be "huge" unless world governments take steps to address the problem, an expert has warned.
An article in the British Medical Journal said the threat to human health from global warming was "more fundamental" than the risk posed to the world economy.
"Climate change is beginning to damage our natural life-support system," said Professor Anthony McMichael, professor of public health from the Australian National University.
The World Health Organisation says one quarter of the world's disease burden is due to the environmental contamination of air, water, soil and food.
And Professor McMichael said this state of affairs is set to worsen, with respiratory and diarrhoeal diseases to become more prevalent.
He explained the increased threat was due to heat waves, floods and wildfires altering infectious disease patterns.
Although the academic conceded changes to the Earth's climate were "unlikely" to create new diseases, he said they would alter the "incident, range and seasonality" of existing health disorders.
Up to 70 million more people could be living in malarial regions over the next 70 years, Professor McMichael claimed.
"Poverty cannot be eliminated while environmental degradation exacerbates malnutrition, disease and injury," he said.
"Food supplies need continuing soil fertility, climatic stability, freshwater supplies and ecological support (such as pollination). Infectious diseases cannot be stabilised in circumstances of climatic instability, refugee flows and impoverishment."
In conclusion, Professor McMichael called on health professionals to "contribute to resolving this momentous issue".