UNHEALTHY ENVIRONMENT: The U.S. is already suffering the effects of rising seas, changes in patterns of flooding and drought, heat waves, shifts in the strength of hurricanes and storms and worsening air quality, according to a government report.
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Climate change is already affecting the nation's public health, according to a new multi-agency report released by the Obama administration. It urges federal agencies to adapt their research and policies to limit future suffering.
"Climate change endangers human health, affecting all sectors of society, both domestically and globally," the report says.
While much of the research into the health effects of climate shifts has focused on developing nations, the new analysis argues that the United States is already suffering the effects of rising seas, changes in patterns of flooding and drought, heat waves, shifts in the strength of hurricanes and storms and worsening air quality.
"As the recent pandemic of H1N1 virus has shown us, diseases do not respect international boundaries," the report says. "Climate change can be a driver for disease migration, but even so, such diseases do not represent the broadest range of possible, or even likely, human health effects of climate change."
Compiled by federal health and environment agencies, the analysis aims to identify research the federal government should undertake to prepare for the health effects of climate change.
"Prevention is the absolute best policy," said the report's lead author, Christopher Portier, senior science adviser to the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. "Understanding how climate change is going to affect our health is going to help us choose adaptation strategies and mitigations that not only alleviate or prevent some effects of climate change, but will also potentially enhance human health."
Portier said reducing the use of fossil fuels will reduce not just emissions of greenhouse gases, which drive warming, but also particulate matter and other pollutants that factor in many conditions that are among the leading causes of death in the United States, including heart and lung illnesses and cancer.
"If we can act on our energy policy by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, the result may well be a net protection of human health," he said.
Wide-ranging impacts
The report produced by Portier and his colleagues at several federal agencies outlines a wide-ranging list of potential health impacts of climate change. They include everything from worsening allergies and asthma, as warming temperatures lengthen growing seasons, to worsening mental health, as Americans cope with more extreme weather events and, in some cases, are forced to move from their communities in response to climate shifts.
And dwindling fresh water supplies for drinking, agriculture, manufacturing and other uses are "becoming a pressing issue," especially in Western and Southern states, the report says.
Because some amount of climate change is unavoidable, based on the current level of greenhouse gases already present in the atmosphere, the report urges the federal government to begin examining how it can address some expected side effects of climate change.
"Given the likely changes that will occur in precipitation patterns, temperature and extreme weather events, adapting the ways in which we store, treat and use water will be key to avoiding changes in water security," the report says. "Similarly, food sources -- whether they be crops, livestock, marine or freshwater -- will be under greater stress in various parts of the United States."
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9 Comments
Add CommentThis is an amazingly incompetent piece of writing. Basically she blames EVERYTHING on "climate change" including cancer! First of all, the H1N1 virus was a bust! In today's modern world diseases are not as serious as in the past because most people in the world are better nourished and better prepared. This is a complete waste of time for Scientific American. It was based on very little scientific fact.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is the most competent piece of wrriting I have seen on the subject anywhere.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScience daughter, it is foolish to dispute the profound evidence this article has presented. The only way this rapid climate change we are inducing on ourselves will not affect you is if you are a cockroach that can adapt as quickly as our climate is changing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt amazes me how some people will fight tooth-n-nail to avoid change that will improve their environment and overall health.
I second Science daughters opinion. Pure, unadulterated clap-trap.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScience daughter knows how to identify error which is basic physical science. Scientific American should be about physical science elimination of error, not political science. There is a Health problem but the evidence points to an EPA mistake. Probabilities indicate, the problem is Crystalline C30x and other crystalline carbon nano-particle fragments created by palladium catalytic converters from spark ignition hydrocarbon engine exhaust . Manage aerosols by replacing catalytic converters with particle trap or air scrubber technology and activated carbon filters. Then, tune hydrocarbon engines to maximum mileage efficiency and the problem can be resolved by the power of the hydrologic cycle, which is the primary control system of earth's climate.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInteresting H2Ov that your solution to reducing the impact of climate change has on our health, economy, lifestyles all come down to simply force the auto industry to change their product to be environmentally friendly and let nature take care of the rest as she filters air contaminants by absorbing them into the water supply. The problem to this solution is of course, that the auto industry does not WANT to change its product, consumers do not WANT to pay for it, and we cannot go without water for the length of time it would take for contaminants to naturally be filtered out of the atmosphere. We must become politically motivated to bring about the change you describe (assuming it is sound basic physical science), so SA has correctly involved political science for it is a necessary component towards arriving at a solution.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTwit - a witty tweet by a Texan!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHello,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOur company Mediclim Europe Limited www.mediclim.co.uk is a service that issues free medical alerts to subscribers when weather patterns are predicted in any location that are likely to impact upon certain illness classes - Asthma, diabetes, migraine, heart disease, arthritis and COPD.
The service is currently available throughout Canada, USA, UK, Ireland and France and to date we have issued in excess of one million alerts to our clients. We are also working with UK healthcare trusts in the provision of this service via their telehealthcare centres.
Subscribers can currently log onto the Mediclim website and register their illness. The Mediclim system then computes on a daily basis, the risk of aggravation of any of these six diseases. Our system then issues an alert via e-mail to the subscriber if a weather system is predicted in their area which is likely to exacerbate their specific illness condition. Apart from email, there are a few additional ways in which we can disseminate our alerts to sufferers (mobile alerts).
With Mediclim, we offer our clients the option to receive advance and helpful notice of potential issues with their health ailment.
Our mediclim subscribers currently have an unsign rate of less than 3 percent and 74 percent of our registered users have confirmed that Mediclim helped them better control their ailment.
Regards,
David Cooper
Mediclim Europe Limited
Hello,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOur company Mediclim Europe Limited www.mediclim.co.uk is a service that issues free medical alerts to subscribers when weather patterns are predicted in any location that are likely to impact upon certain illness classes - Asthma, diabetes, migraine, heart disease, arthritis and COPD.
The service is currently available throughout Canada, USA, UK, Ireland and France and to date we have issued in excess of one million alerts to our clients. We are also working with UK healthcare trusts in the provision of this service via their telehealthcare centres.
Subscribers can currently log onto the Mediclim website and register their illness. The Mediclim system then computes on a daily basis, the risk of aggravation of any of these six diseases. Our system then issues an alert via e-mail to the subscriber if a weather system is predicted in their area which is likely to exacerbate their specific illness condition. Apart from email, there are a few additional ways in which we can disseminate our alerts to sufferers (mobile alerts).
With Mediclim, we offer our clients the option to receive advance and helpful notice of potential issues with their health ailment.
Our mediclim subscribers currently have an unsign rate of less than 3 percent and 74 percent of our registered users have confirmed that Mediclim helped them better control their ailment.
David Cooper.
Mediclim Europe Limited