Global warming is already causing death
and disease across the world through flooding, environmental
destruction, heatwaves and other extreme weather events,
scientists said.
And it is likely to get worse.
In a review published in The Lancet medical journal,
the scientists said there was now a near-unanimous scientific
consensus that rising levels of greenhouse gases would
cause global warming and other climate changes.
"The advent of changes in global climate signals that
we are now living beyond the Earth's capacity to absorb
a major waste product," said Anthony McMichael of the
Australian National University in Canberra and his colleagues,
referring to greenhouse gases.
The scientists' review of dozens of scientific papers
over the last five years said health risks were likely
to get worse over time as climate change and other environmental
and social changes deepened.
"The resultant risks to health ... are anticipated to
compound over time as climate change along with other
large scale environmental and social changes continues,"
they wrote.
The review said climate change would bring changes in
temperature, sea levels, rainfall, humidity and winds.
This would lead to an increase in death rates from heatwaves,
infectious diseases, allergies, cholera as well as starvation
due to failing crops.
They said climate change may already have led to lower
production of food in some regions due to changes in temperature,
rainfall, soil moisture, pests and diseases.
"In food insecure populations this alteration may already
be contributing to malnutrition," it said.
The scientists said sea levels had risen in recent decades,
and people had already started moving from some low-lying
Pacific islands. Such population movements often increased
nutritional and physical problems and disease, they said.
"The number of people adversely affected by El Nino-related
weather events over three decades, worldwide, appears
to have increased greatly," it said, referring to the
weather pattern caused by warming of the Pacific Ocean
off South America.
The review called for research to identify groups vulnerable
to climate change and said health concerns should be included
in international policy debates about global warming.
"Recognition of widespread health risks should widen
these debates beyond the already important considerations
of economic disruption," they said.
