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GreenAlerts - USA - Climate Change Is Hazardous To Your Health
Efficient use of energy coupled with alternative sources can help stabilize the climate
New York,NY,USA -Forbes, by Paul R. Epstein & Evan Mills -16 Nov 2005: -- Public attention has focused on the devastating aftermath and global dimensions of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, but climate change is already having a less conspicuous, but just as dangerous, impact on humans and the natural systems upon which we depend. Of immediate concern are the implications for human health... For example, asthma rates have quadrupled in the U.S. since 1980. And this factor will grow stronger in a world with increasing levels of CO2... Another: Dust clouds emanating from Africa's expanding deserts. A rise in wildfires with climate-change-exacerbated droughts are also projected to adversely affect respiratory health... Some diseases, such as West Nile virus, threaten birds and occasionally jump to humans. Meanwhile, warming is projected to expand the range of ticks that carry Lyme disease as well as malaria-bearing mosquitoes and is projected to do so even more in a warmer regime... Finally, food and water security are also threatened from changes in Earth's climate. Water, with stores already overdrawn and underfed in many regions (including the southwest U.S.), will become scarcer and more contaminated in many areas, as alpine glaciers disappear and weather patterns shift... The inflation-adjusted economic damages from severe weather rose to $80 billion per year in the U.S. in the 1990s, from an average of about $5 billion per year during the 1950s, and surpassed $200 billion this year... Aligning incentives for individuals, large investors, banks, insurance companies, nongovernmental groups and public and international bodies--via procurement policies, tax credits, rearranged subsidies and funds--can create the right market signals. A substantial investment in our common future would have enormous returns on investment in terms of public health, ecological integrity, global security and the international economy--including energy bill reductions for individuals, companies and nations--while helping to stabilize the climate...
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