Roberto Bertollini: There are a range of impacts that can justify many of the actions that are going to be taken for climate change. I think the health arguments are not used enough.
EarthSky spoke with Roberto Bertollini, M.D., of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Bertollini heads efforts by the WHO to protect human health from the impacts of climate change.
Roberto Bertollini: We have made an analysis that in the year 2000, because of weather-related events associated to the initial climate change, there are already 150,000 additional deaths due to a small number of diseases we studied that could be attributable to climate change. We have estimated that this is probably going to be close to double in the last five years, and we expect further increase for the 2010-2020.
According to the WHO, climate change intensifies floods and droughts. Floods can contaminate water and cause fatal illnesses, such as diarrhea and cholera. And prolonged droughts can cause food shortages.
Roberto Bertollini: In addition to that, we have the problem of air pollution, the problem of heat waves. These things are also happening now.
Dr. Bertollini said the biggest health impacts are to people in developing countries, but people worldwide face some risk to their health from climate change.
Roberto Bertollini: I think this is really an issue of life and survival of human beings.
Dr. Bertollini spoke more about how climate change impacts human health.
Roberto Bertollini: There is not one single most important impact, because there are different impacts in different countries. For instance, in countries of the western world at the moment, there are acute events, heat waves, have been the most important impact. But maybe also the air pollution is an important impact. In developing countries, the most important impact is probably diarrhea, or vector borne diseases.
At the Copenhagen climate summit, EarthSky asked Dr. Bertollini what he thought was the most important thing people should know about climate change and human health.
Roberto Bertollini: I think this is really an issue of life and survival of the human beings. I sometimes have the feeling that people think that more or less eventually the situation will adjust, we’ll have a different situation. This is not a joke. It’s a very serious business. It’s the health and the well being of the people at stake. It’s the survival of certain populations at stake.
What if the climate is changing for the better? What is the optimum climate? Why? How do you know?
Man is living better and longer than at any time in human history in developed countries. The problems are in the socialist and dictator run dumps around the world. If we persist with the removing of property from private ownership and continue with the policies designed to “help” the environment, there will be more and more folks living in hellholes run by bureaucrats.
Government control is not the answer. The “climate” is not changing in reaction to human activities.
Another question: How, and where did anyone get the idea that earth’s climate was ever static and would remain the way someone wanted it to?
“Roberto Bertollini: We have made an analysis that in the year 2000, because of weather-related events associated to the initial climate change, there are already 150,000 additional deaths due to a small number of diseases we studied that **could be** attributable to climate change.”
I accented the “**could be** in Bertollini’s comments. Could be is far different than **shown to be** and suggests his views are speculative and not based on the body of literature. The WHO’s own studies find that tropical disease rates are decreasing on average globally, and at an even higher rate in developing countries. See the WHO’s own graphic on the significant decrease of malaria here:
http://www.ncpa.org/images/1456.gif
and this multinational study:
http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/F60E803B-BD54-4456-9F22-F3D15AC61ACB/0/graph4.gif
Published statistics and studies indicate:
* Deaths from Tropical diseases are falling dramatically (the WHO’s own findings).
* When outbreaks occur, misguided policies are to blame (the WHO’s own findings).
* Almost every health expert recognizes that the prevalence of tropical diseases in the developing world stems from poverty, lack of access to medical care, and declining sanitation.
* The approximately 1/2 degree increase in global temperature over the past 100 years is not sufficient to link statistically to tropical disease outbreaks.
Would someone please point me to the peer reviewed literature Bertollini uses to make his **could be** claims? This whole presentation comes across as grant seeking with the requisite references to global warming. I hope the WHO gets the finances they need to continue the fight to eradicate the world’s diseases as it is an important endeavor that I personally support. However, “could be attributable to climate change” claims not supported by published studies don’t help the cause. Lets stick to empirical science and avoid hypothetical speculation.
I just dont see why people are still so adamant that this stuff is not happening. I am stoked you have thos blog up helping create awareness.
Ron,
People like myself are not adamant that “stuff” isn’t happening. I am surprised to see Bertollini making claims that increasing disease figures ** could be ** attributed to global warming when his own organization publishes reports that definitively demonstrate that diseases are clearly not on the increase but rather at the lowest levels ever. Every national and international based study I’ve read agree. I don’t see why people are so adamant that stuff is happening when the body of literature says it isn’t.
You guys ever hear of HAARP? It’s new technology governments are using to manipulate the weather, and it burns holes into our ionisphere.
My gravest concern is that people are simply not going to react to the dangers of global warming until it’s too late. As a race we’re lazy, indigent, prone to denial and unwilling to make sacrifices. All the scientific data in the world won’t help if we somehow don’t shock people out of their comfort zones and make them take action.
A very informative post – Thanks for sharing! People must be aware of the said climate change, since all of these are now happening due to the imperfect world. And thus this include our health; this is true, and this isn’t really a joke!
Many people are very skeptical about climate change. Many people do not believe in it. But if we look at what is happening to the environment today, it is very clear that we should not take climate change for granted. We should do something about it because the future of our children depends on us.
I think that most of the world’s issues, including the climate change, could be remedied by the use of alternative energy sources. I just wish I knew a way to get this through to those who are in charge.
Hasn’t this been debunked recently or am I mistaken? I’m all for alternative energy resource development but I think we overstate our ability to create global impact and underestimate the ability of the planet systems to heal aberrations… Just my thought though, please don’t go jumping down my throat.
Ariel, are you asking if global warming has been debunked? No. Many commentators may say so. But a recent survey of 1,300+ climate scientists – people actually doing the research and publishing in this field – indicates that 97-98% of climate researchers believe Earth is warming in part due to human activities.
There’s evidence of human impacts from thousands of years ago. There are 7 billion humans on Earth now. We’re part of nature. It’s all one big system. So of course we have an effect.
Thanks for visiting,
ES
There’s just too much evidence of warming for people to really contest it anymore.
Its really sad to see the primary victims of global warming are people who live in under developed/developing nations. If a natural disaster happens due to global warming, developed countries will not suffer as much because they have finical capacity to deal with the associated problems. Its really sad to see our planet is becoming unfair play ground. Developed countries has to do one of the two: cut down emission of co2 as much as possible or provide as much assistance as possible to the under developed countries to help them prepare for disasters. We see on the news how flood is creating big problem in under developed countries from every time.
-Dave
Yeah, 3rd world is hit the worst, then in 50 years the developed world gets hit.
Are you speaking about 3rd world countries? Three years ago the Europe was heated and dozen of thousands people died because of the high temperature. This summer it happened again, mostly in Russia. Scientists should try to predict these changes and inform population as soon as possible.
Thanks for the post! Articles like this are helping to spread the truth about the world in which we live.
This is clear evidence against naysayer to global warming. Also, goes to show that covering it up won’t work since we will be seeing the impact on our health nonetheless.
allergy is making me hungry… I just wanna go and remedy I could :(
allergy is awesome… I just wanna go and can buy :(
Keep up good work,very good article.
I’m curious if anybody could possibly figure out exactly what the midterm elections may possibly mean regarding free college awards. It appears the Republicans will certainly start looking to slash anything they could cut knowning that in all probability means awards for college education. I don’t comprehend how these people think this country is ever going to be competitive, if your cost of higher education continues to rise, although grants become tougher to acquire. It is horrifying to imagine I’ll be in debt $40,000 or more and not really knowing if I might actually have a job opportunity after I graduate in this economy.
Fossil fuel alternatives are the wave of the future. Just recently I realized that there are expansive wind farms in western Illinois — these must have been built in the past few years but it is uplifting to see the open space being used for something so necessary. I wrote about it on my Solar power website, take a look!
Only another 50 percent the post is displaying, strange, is this my net browser or the website?
Ahhh…the country that I’m staying now is starting to ban plastic bag. So now everyone will have to bring their own grocery bag to the mall. I know it’s kinda late but for a developing country like my country, I’m happy that they are actually doing something towards the environment. And happy to say, I can see less rubbish (Plastic, mostly) on the road and streets since they ban plastic bag half year ago.
But seriously, our mother earth is badly sick :(
One of the problems is that if we have a cold winter, or even a cold month (such as December in the UK) then people assume global warming is no longer an issue. We just have to keep going and spread the word.
Good post, thanks.
Mark
It’s good. But this posted in http://nevashedelo.ru/
lohotron? aferizm!!!
DOCTOR BERTOLLINI LO QUE YO BUSCO ES FAMILIARES QUE HAYA EN ITALIA . PUEBLO TITO .ERAN ABUELOS DE MI MADRE .MARIA TRIBILINI Y SU ESPOSO SANTIAGO BERTOLLINI . Y POR PARTE DE PADRE LUISA MANYINELI .(EN REALIDAD NO SE SI ESTAN ESCRITOS DE MANERA CORRECTA LOS APELLIDOS ESEPTUANDO .BERTOLLINI Y LUONGO) TAL VES PODRIAMOS ESTABLECER ALGUN CONTACTO .DESDE YA GRACIAS
We’re now seeing the effects of global warming with the harsh winters and unbearable summers. If we don’t get this under control soon, we’ll regret it in the years to come.
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