| July 8, 2010 |  |
Climate Change is Hazardous to Your Health, Scientists Say
Heatwaves to Become the Norm; Some Regions Could Become too Hot and Humid for Humans
WASHINGTON (July 8, 2010) -- Climate change is hazardous to your health, according to scientists participating in a telephone press conference today held by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Climate models show that if heat-trapping emissions continue unabated, global warming is likely to increase smog and trigger more heat waves, floods and droughts, all of which threaten human health.
“Climate change is a quintessential public health problem,” said Michael McGeehin, director of the Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Heat waves are a public health disaster. They kill, and they kill the most vulnerable members of our society. The fact that climate change is going to increase the number and intensity of heat waves is something we need to prepare for.”
Climate change models show that the kind of heat waves some parts of the country have been suffering through in recent weeks are likely to occur more often and at closer intervals, and last longer, said David Easterling, a division chief with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center. “The current spate of heat waves could be a harbinger of things to come,” he said, pointing out that from January through May, this year has been the hottest on record for global average temperatures.
Climate change could even make regions of the Earth uninhabitable, according to Matthew Huber, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue University. His research, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, calculated the highest temperature-humidity combination that humans can withstand.
According to Huber’s findings, if emissions from burning fossil fuels continue unabated, extremely high temperature and humidity levels could make much of the world essentially uninhabitable for human beings. Over the long term perhaps – 200 or 300 years – the planet could experience an increase of average global temperatures of 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Under that scenario, much of the world – including Australia, many Mediterranean countries, and parts of Africa, Brazil, China, India and the eastern half of the United States – would be so hot and humid that people would not be able to survive outside during heat waves for more than a few hours.
“We can still decide to try to avoid that” by dramatically reducing the heat-trapping emissions that cause global warming, Huber said. “And from our calculations, it is something we should try to avoid.”
Jonathan Patz, director of global environmental health at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said that while climate change is a health threat, tackling it is a major public health opportunity. For example, he pointed out, the World Health Organization reports about 1 million people annually die prematurely from air pollution. Cutting global warming emissions also would reduce certain kinds of pollution, especially ground-level ozone or smog. “If we can reduce air pollution,” Patz said, “we can save lives.”
Patz’s latest research found that cutting down on the number short car trips and reducing the number of miles driven by about 20 percent could save hundreds of lives, avoid hundreds of thousands of hospital admissions, and save billions of dollars in healthcare costs in the Midwest alone.
If drivers got out of their cars and either walked or rode a bicycle, Patz added, “we could probably double those health care cost savings.”
UCS climate scientist Brenda Ekwurzel, who moderated the press briefing, noted that addressing climate change is not all about saving polar bears and other faraway creatures and habitats. “More and more, studies demonstrate that the health care impact and health care costs related to climate change,” she said, “are directly related to us.”
The Union of Concerned Scientists puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet's most pressing problems. Joining with citizens across the country, we combine technical analysis and effective advocacy to create innovative, practical solutions for a healthy, safe, and sustainable future.
