that human-induced changes in the Earth’s climate now lead to at least 5 million
cases of illness and more than 150,000 deaths every year. Temperature fluctuations
may sway human health in a surprising number of ways, scientists have learned,
from influencing the spread of infectious diseases to boosting the likelihood
of illness-inducing heat waves and floods.
Now, in a synthesis report featured on the cover of the journal Nature, a team of health and climate scientists at UW-Madison and WHO has shown that the growing health impacts of climate change affect different regions in markedly different ways. Ironically, the places that have contributed the least to warming the Earth are the most vulnerable to the death and disease higher temperatures can bring.
Read the UW-Madison Communications news release, http://www.news.wisc.edu/11878.html
Read the Nature abstract, http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7066/full/nature04188.html
Listen to a Nature podcast featuring the article by linking from http://www.sage.wisc.edu/pages/news.html
Read the Washington Post story, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/16/AR2005111602197.html
Stories about this article also appear in The Independent, http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article327539.ece
and Guardian Unlimited, http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,1644197,00.html
Professor Patz will chair a related international conference, EcoHealth ONE
(http://www.ecohealth.net/Conference/site/index.html),
at UW–Madison next fall.
http://www.news.wisc.edu/11878.html