April 8th, 2008
Global warming makes you sick
Global warming is also a health crisis, says the World Health Organization.
Speaking as part of yesterday’s World Health Day festivities, Director General Dr. Margaret Chan said the increased storms, floods, droughts and heat waves accompanying warming are already stressing health systems worldwide.
Examples? She brought examples:
- The 2003 heat wave in Europe killed 70,000 more people than would normally perish in a summer.
- Outbreaks of Rift Valley fever come during intense rains which will increase as the climate changes.
- Hurricane Katrina. ’Nuff said.
- Cholera epidemics in Bangladesh linked to flooding and “unsafe” water.
- Malaria rates in East Africa have been rising with the temperature.
“Climate change is sometimes debated as if it affected only the planet and not the people living on it” added Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
Oh, right. I shouldn’t even mention this because it’s not a “computer” story. How about if I mention that a warmer planet also makes your computer’s fan work harder?
I don’t know how this will go over with Americans, many of whom believe as little in global warming as they do in, say, the UN.
But facts are stubborn things. As global warming takes entire states (like Florida and Louisiana) over the next decades this will become apparent.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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