Report warns of global warming costs

Sarah Avery in the News Observer (North Carolina): The health risks of global climate change read like a chapter out of the Book of Revelation: plagues from mosquitoes and other insects; floods and droughts that cause sickness and mental anguish; food-borne scourges and malnutrition. In a report released recently by federal scientists, led by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, the wide-reaching health problems associated with climate change were laid out to help government officials decide where they should spend research dollars.

Christopher Portier, lead author of the study and a mathematical statistician at the NIEHS, said the magnitude of the health problems, some of which are already occurring, requires an all-hands-on-deck approach among the nation's health agencies. The National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among others, are leading the charge. "Everybody understands about malaria moving north, and dengue fever moving north, and that is getting support, but other things like cancer and mental health - those have received less attention," Portier said.

…"What is not well understood by many people is that there is this economic connection between what we do or don't do now, and how these things will play out in the future," said Randall Kramer, a professor of environmental economics at Duke University. "There are economic and health consequences of the many different paths we might take."

Hurricane Katrina provided a lesson about the costly health problems climate change might inflict, Portier said. Although it's not clear the disaster was related to climate change, it has served as a model for the scope of catastrophic storms that scientists anticipate will increase as the planet warms….

Fog created by fumigating agent for mosquito control, during dengue fever season: Maracay, Venezuela. Shot by Bobjgalindo, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license