Climate madness, or the health effects of global warming

Each year on April 7th, the world celebrates World Health Day. This year the focus was on “protecting health from climate change”. According to WHO, the changes in global climate bring a range of risks to health, from deaths in extreme high temperatures to changing patterns of infectious diseases.

But wait a second, isn’t extreme cold much more hazardous to human health and wellbeing? U.S. mortality rates peak in December and January and are at their lowest points from mid-July to mid-August. Deaths linked to extreme cold account for 0.8 percent of the US annual death rate and outnumber those attributed to leukemia, murder and chronic liver disease combined, the study reports. Cold-related deaths also reduce the average life expectancy of Americans by at least a decade, according to a new report.

In Helsinki, Finland, 55 people die each year from heat and 1,655 from cold. In Athens, Greece, a much warmer place, the deaths from excess heat are 1,376 each year and the deaths from cold 7,852.

According to the Danish scientist Bjorn Lomborg about 200,000 Europeans could die each year from excessive heat, and 1.5 million from excessive cold. So actually global warming will save human lives. And correspondingly, while cutting CO2 will save some people from dying from heat, it will simultaneously cause more people to die from cold.

Extremely cold temperatures also mean we have to cope with power failures and icy roads. The risk of car crashes and falls on the ice increase. When people must use space heaters and fireplaces to stay warm, the risk of household fires increases, as well as the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

This winter, for example, extreme cold and energy shortages create crisis in Tajikistan. Water lines have either broken or frozen, forcing families to rely on melted snow for drinking water. A major hydroelectric power plant had been affected by falling water levels as rivers froze, while energy supply from neighboring countries such as Uzbekistan has also been reduced. Many rural areas have access to just one or two hours of electricity a day. The price of wood as fuel has doubled to 20 dollars, out of range of many people. Heavy snowfall has blocked roads in some areas, cutting off or slowing access to critical medical services and markets.

The deteriorating living conditions result in a higher incidence of acute respiratory diseases, worse hygiene standards, increased incidence of water-borne diseases, the worsening of chronic diseases and an increased incidence of preventable maternal and infant deaths and unsafe deliveries. All of these happen to be consequences of excessive heat as well, as WHO points out.

WHO also counts weather extremes, such as Hurricane Katrina, as a result of global warming endangering health and destroying property. But why in the first place do people choose to settle down in hurricane prone areas?

It is true that hurricanes damage or destroy many buildings. However, with proper design and construction, this damage can be greatly reduced. Still, it is difficult, if not impossible, to find one US community that has changed its land-use and building codes based upon hurricane activity. Why can’t people learn their lesson?

Tjuk Eko Hari Basuki of the National Food Resilience Agency in Indonesia says there remains a lack of public awareness when it comes to extreme weather and its risks. He says a recent study in Yogyakarta found that 60 percent of people living in villages were spending large portions of their income on consumer goods.

Even though they live below the poverty line, they still spend money on motorcycle payments and cellular phones. That’s why educating people about how to adjust their lifestyle is truly important in order to improve their health standards.

There is one area of health, however, that is already affected by the climate threat. Psychotherapist Jenny Packard, from the University of Melbourne, found global warming was causing widespread anxiety. While climate change alone was probably not enough to drive people to seek counseling, it was part of the “insidious background of fear” being cultivated by the media, she said. “We live in an age of fear-mongering, where people feel under personal threat from many things beyond their control, such as climate change, violence etc.”

So the bottom line is that the climate change may not kill you, but it may very well drive you mad.