Global warming kills 150,000 people a year, warns UN

[Barrett808]

By Terry Kirby, Chief Reporter
12 December 2003

Global warming is killing about 150,000 people a year, mostly in deprived and tropical areas, and the toll could rise dramatically if efforts are not made to combat climate change, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned yesterday.

The United Nations agency said the health of millions of people was under threat as a consequence of rising temperatures and uncertain weather patterns, which many scientists claim are caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

The WHO said climate change could cause increases in malaria and other insect-born diseases, malnutrition and pollution-related diseases, as well as deaths from extreme one-offs such as this summer's heatwave in Europe.

The report, which has been published this week to coincide with the UN conference in Milan on climate change, blamed global warming for 2.4 per cent of diarrhoea cases and 2 per cent of all cases of malaria worldwide. It estimated that, by 2030, climate change could cause 300,000 deaths annually and that a further 5.5 million years of healthy living had been lost worldwide due to debilitating diseases caused by rising temperatures.

The report said: "The 1990s were the hottest decade on record and the upward trend in the world's temperature does not look like it is abating. In Europe this past summer, for example, an estimated 20,000 people died due to extremely hot temperatures."

(more)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=472452

[tlb]

1. Pasteur Institute scientist repudiates this.

Professor Paul Reiter* of the Pasteur Institute in Paris and Harvard University, a leading specialist in these diseases (malaria, dengue, yellow fever, St. Louis & West Nile encephalitis) rejects this suggestion:

"It is naive to attempt to predict the effects of 'global warming' on malaria on the mere basis of temperature," said Reiter. "The natural history of all the mosquito borne diseases is extraordinarily complex, and the interplay of climate, weather, ecology and the biology of the vector and its hosts defies simple analysis. Of course temperature is significant, but many other factors, particularly agricultural practices, human behaviour and living standards, are often far more important".



He points out that malaria was once a devastating disease throughout Europe, and remained common throughout the 'Little Ice Age' of the late 16th and 17th centuries. Indeed, until the mid-20h century, it remained a major scourge in Poland, Russia, and other countries of the Soviet bloc. For example, in the 1920s, a massive epidemic killed 600,000 people, with 30,000 cases as far north as the arctic seaport of Archangel.

"In much of western Europe, malaria gradually disappeared in the second half of the 19th century, mainly through changes in agricultural practices, drainage, improved living conditions, and the movement of rural populations to the cities" Reiter continued. "However, in southern Europe, as in the Soviet Union, many regions had to wait until the DDT era, after World War II, before they were able to eliminate the disease. Indeed, even Holland was not certified malaria-free by the WHO until 1970! In combating vector-borne diseases, money and attention should be focused on reducing poverty to improve public health."



Reiter says a creative and organized application of resources is urgently needed to combat the scourge of malaria and other vector-borne diseases, regardless of the earth's future climate:

"Why don't we devote our resources to tackling these diseases directly, instead of spending billions in vain attempts to change the weather?"

-------

*Paul Reiter, PhD, worked for 22 years as a medical entomologist for the Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Disease of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He now heads a new unit of Insects and Infectious Disease at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He has published more than 100 articles on mosquito borne diseases, and is a contributor to Adapt or Die: The science, politics and economics of climate change (Profile Books, December 2003). ** International Policy Network (www.policynetwork.net) is a London-based charity and NGO which coordinates policy activities on the environment, health, trade and technology.



http://www.enn.com/direct/display-release.asp?objid=D1D1366D000000F96527174F2D1CF883

[Nile]

2. Reiter does make some good points.

Attack the knowns and leave the unknowns for another day.