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Here in the US global warming may already be harming public health. Houston has experienced a malaria outbreak in each of the last two years. In the 1990s malaria cases have occurred as far north as New Jersey, Michigan and Queens, New York. Malaria could become even more common in the US as global warming worsens. IPCC scientists project that as warmer temperatures spread north and south from the tropics, and to higher elevations, malaria-carrying mosquitoes will spread with them. They conclude that global warming will likely put as much as 65% of the world's population at risk of infection—an increase of 20%.
Outbreaks of encephalitis, another mosquito-borne illness with strong links to warmer temperatures, are also on the rise. Since 1987 there have been major outbreaks in Florida, Mississippi, New Orleans, Texas, Arizona, California, and Colorado. Global warming will have numerous damaging impacts on human health. Spreading infectious disease, longer and hotter heat waves, and extreme weather will all claim thousands of additional lives nationwide each year. If global warming continues unabated, both we and our children will pay a terrible price. We simply cannot afford to ignore the global warming problem. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
The world's
leading authority on global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
has concluded that unchecked global warming will cause a significant increase in human
mortality due to extreme weather and infectious disease. No country, even industrialized
nations like the United States, will escape these impacts.
When McAllen, Texas
suffered a severe outbreak of dengue fever in 1995, the Houston Chronicle's head-line
read,"Warming Climate Invites Dengue Fever to Texas." Epidemiologists reported
that an unusually mild winter and hotter than normal summer contributed to the spread of
the disease, which is carried by mosquitoes.