Was it only yesterday that I wrote about the below India ranking that the US scored on a Yale scorecard of environmental/agricultural/health gdp-linked indicators? Today another double whammy dosis of worrisome news from the UK.
The report in question is entitled "Health Effects of Climate Change in the UK”. It's written by scientists of the Health Protection Agency and predicts chances that a heat wave will occur before 2012 are 25% which will claim thousands of lives.
The report, authored by the UK's Health Protection Agency is shockingly alarming in many ways. But its writers are outlining worst case scenarios and the effects with no aim other than to inform health officials what they should be prepared for.
The death toll is estimated to run as high as 10,000 people. If temperatures average at least 27 degrees over 24 hours, some 3,000 immediate deaths would occur.
The 'best' statistics available of the hazards are the 2003 French heatwave which had an official death toll of 14,000 people. The UK health officials' report arrived at a politically opportune moment because Downing Street is putting a plan together for the health sector to deal with global warming related disease.
Hospitals are told to prepare for malaria outbreaks because rising temperatures mean there's a bigger risk of outbreaks of diseases transferred by musquitoes and ticks. Even if a disease might not originate in the UK, warm weather might trigger an epidemic that was transferred from people who travel overseas, the UK government believes.
Air pollution is another big worry. The authors of the Health Protection Agency's report say that hospitals should count on an estimated 1,500 deaths and hospital admissions annually as a result of it. Food poisoning is believed to rise by 15% due to warmer weather. That amounts to 14,000 cases a year. Other than health hazards there are also increased chances of floods.
Is it me or does it really begin to feel like we need to take climate change seriously? When people talk about 'doing my bit for the planet' the phrase is mostly used as an expression of smallness. But if you read up on what you actually can do, you'll be surprised at how easy most options are. Better tools become available every day that allow you to calculate the direct impact in kilos of carbon emissions. If you want to start doing something, find a calculator (I have listed general (energy) calculators, water, paper, printer, car and aviation calculators on my other blog. If you live in the UK, you can also opt for an iGoogle calculator which allows you to track everything you contribute to the planet. You can visit my other blog here: http://amplifiedgreen.wordpress.com.
we need to realise that every little bit counts.
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