MANILA, Philippines, April 7, 2008
WHO: Global Warming To Spread More Disease
Group Says Malaria, Floods, Hunger To Go Up With Rising Temperatures, Changing Rainfall
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(CBS/AP)
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Interactive Global Warming The greenhouse effect, a look at the Kyoto Protocol and a history of the Earth's climate.
Malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition and floods cause an estimated 150,000 deaths annually, with Asia accounting for more than half, said regional WHO Director Shigeru Omi.
Malaria-carrying mosquitoes represent the clearest sign that global warming has begun to impact human health, he said, adding they are now found in cooler climates such as South Korea and the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Warmer weather means that mosquitoes' breeding cycles are shortening, allowing them to multiply at a much faster rate, posing an even greater threat of disease, he told reporters in Manila.
The exceptionally high number cases in Asia of dengue fever, which is also spread by mosquitoes, could be due to rising temperatures and rainfall, but Omi said more study is needed to establish the connection between climate change and that disease.
In Geneva, WHO chief Margaret Chan said the reality of climate change "can no longer be doubted. The effects are already being felt."
She cited climate-sensitive diseases such as dengue and cholera, which are currently present in South America and Angola, respectively, because of flooding. She also called for more progress in battling malaria.
Chan said the issue of health and climate change should be addressed by leaders of the Group of Eight developed nations at their meeting in Japan next month. "Not addressing the climate change impact on health would derail their previous investment in supporting countries in development," she said.
In the Marshall Islands and South Pacific island nations, rising sea levels have already penetrated low-lying areas, submerging arable land and causing migrations to New Zealand or Australia, Omi said.
He said poorer countries with meager resources and weak health systems will be hit hardest because malnutrition is already widespread, with the young, women and the elderly at particular risk.
Omi said unusual, unexpected climate patterns - too much rain or too little - will have an impact on food production, especially irrigated crops such as rice, and can cause unemployment, economic upheavals and political unrest.
Omi said governments need to strengthen current systems providing clean water, immunizations, disease surveillance, mosquito control and disaster preparedness.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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- I would certainly want in the gravy train.One problem though,the theory has to many holes.
I''m afraid that once all the money is squeezed out,it''ll
go out of the window. - Reply to this comment
- "Your "un-intelligently designed" idiot and so is the rest of the Bush administration and their greedy republicons that have financially and environmentally ruined this country!
Posted by zoe2006 at 10:58 AM : Apr 09, 2008"
You still are breathing and can afford to troll the Internet, so the economy and environment CAN''T be that bad.
Ignorant, Liberal, dumbarse. - Reply to this comment
- "THE WORLD WILL DIE! WE NEED TO SAVE THE CHILDREN!"
So send in you contributions to WHO, in care of your friendly neighborhood United Nations.
"The UN. We are here to make all the world the same, especially if it costs all Americans their freedom." - Reply to this comment
- Global warming is a real problem. With stagnation of water and warm weather there will be more mosquitoes, especially with the decline in bat and bird populations that eat the mosquitoes for food. More diseases, it quite evident.
posted by zoe2006 at 10:55 AM : Apr 09, 2008
Hmmmmm...I thought a study done a few weeks ago determined that the bats might be starving to death because of "climate change" that altered their food supply. You climate change people need to agree to a story and then stick to it.
You poor algoraphobics! Sleep well tonight...you never know what horrors tomorrow might bring! - Reply to this comment
- zoe2006,
You are a perfect example of a government edcuated, bedwetting whiner. Try some sugar in that government Kool Aid. - Reply to this comment
- Sounds like the WHO got a copy of Ted Turner''s latest peyote induced manifesto. We''ll just eat one another beofre the disease sets in. Problem solved, right Ted?
- Reply to this comment
- Real scientist don''t anticipate much effect from carbon dioxide at all, much less "increasingly critical". Atmospheric carbon dioxide''s greenhouse effect is logarithmic -- the first half of pre-Industrial Revolution-level effect was achieved by less than 20 parts per million, then needing the addition of 250 ppmv more to achieve the same warming increment to reach pre-IR effect and it will take a massive increase to repeat the dose again. (The "how much" depends on total sensitivity estimates but, utilizing A Field Guide to the Atmosphere (Houghton, 1983)''s commonly cited 7 K greenhouse effect for 300 ppmv (presumably from Kondratyev & Moskalenko but the origin of this common figure is obscure) then quadrupling pre-IR levels to 1120 ppmv can deliver a mere 1.71 K warming in total -- since there''s already alleged to have been 0.7 K that leaves just 1 kelvin potential for adding another 740 ppmv to the current 380 ppmv.)
Lets stop the global warming scam now. - Reply to this comment
- The "controversy" has been manufacturered, in the same way the controversy about the link between smoking and cancer was manufacturered. Anthropogenic gw/cc is being taught as certainty in textbooks and universities.
Posted by Hominatrix53 at 07:16 AM : Apr 09, 2008
LOL A global warming skeptic and smoker in denial, all in one :) - Reply to this comment
- The "controversy" has been manufacturered, in the same way the controversy about the link between smoking and cancer was manufacturered. Anthropogenic gw/cc is being taught as certainty in textbooks and universities.
- Reply to this comment
- Above exceprt from Wikipedia
Posted by jon2012
Yeah, that about says it all - Reply to this comment
- We all are contributing to the problem. Consider the energy I use to dispel myths like yours an investment.
Posted by jon2012
Whatever justification you need. Keep wasting my friend - Reply to this comment
- You are contributing to the problem. Get off your computer, save a little electricity for the good of mankind. Thank you
Posted by titletrack at 09:39 PM : Apr 08, 2008
We all are contributing to the problem. Consider the energy I use to dispel myths like yours an investment. - Reply to this comment
- The majority of climate scientists agree that global warming is primarily caused by human activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation.[18][19][20] The conclusion that global warming is mainly caused by human activity and will continue if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced has been endorsed by at least 30 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences,[21] the American Association for the Advancement of Science,[22] and the Joint Science Academies of the major industrialized and developing nations[23] explicitly use the word "consensus" when referring to this conclusion.
Above exceprt from Wikipedia
Posted by jon2012
You are contributing to the problem. Get off your computer, save a little electricity for the good of mankind. Thank you - Reply to this comment
- LOL Not your choice, bro.
Posted by jimfinster
Let us hope we don''t fall for this global warming hoax. - Reply to this comment
- The majority of climate scientists agree that global warming is primarily caused by human activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation.[18][19][20] The conclusion that global warming is mainly caused by human activity and will continue if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced has been endorsed by at least 30 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences,[21] the American Association for the Advancement of Science,[22] and the Joint Science Academies of the major industrialized and developing nations[23] explicitly use the word "consensus" when referring to this conclusion.
Above exceprt from Wikipedia - Reply to this comment
- No thanks.
Posted by titletrack at 09:28 PM : Apr 08, 2008
LOL Not your choice, bro. - Reply to this comment
- A large scale problem like global warming can only be solved by all governments working together on a solution.
Posted by jimfinster
No thanks. - Reply to this comment
- So, how does it work? In your fairy tale world, government comes to the rescue to save the people from every conceivable ill (out of the goodness of their hearts). Hardly the case.
Posted by JT_Lancer
A large scale problem like global warming can only be solved by all governments working together on a solution. It is a global issue, not a local issue. Surely you can understand this? Maybe not. - Reply to this comment
- Time and again, it is government that is the most egregious polluter of all.
Posted by JT_Lancer
Really? Please explain. I do not think this is a factual statement. - Reply to this comment
- The science of global warming is at least 15 years old.
Posted by jon2012 at 08:51 PM : Apr 08, 2008
Shouldn''t you be out planting a tree or something? - Reply to this comment
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