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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Fighting global warming could reduce disease and save millions of lives (as well as the planet)
Posted by Katie Machol on Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 1:00 PM
According to recent research published in the British medical journal The Lancet Wednesday (November 25), cutting greenhouse pollutants could not only save the planet from drastic climate change but could also greatly affect our health in a positive way. The studies linking climate change and health show that reducing carbon dioxide emissions from our atmosphere could greatly reduce preventable deaths from heart and lung diseases.
The studies performed looked at confronting climate change in four areas: electricity generation, household energy use, transportation, and food and agriculture. Each study looks at both high- and low-income nations and the health implications of reducing greenhouse gases from fossil fuels. Major amounts of carbon emissions are due to both transportation and from the burning of solid fuel in the household stoves of poorer countries (that burn dung, charcoal, wood and other polluting fuels) to cook and heat their homes. Carbon emissions cause air pollution because it increases ground-level ozone, thus accumulating fine particulate matter that could lead to lung disease.
Kirk R. Smith, one of the authors of the studies, who is a professor of global environmental health at The University of California at Berkeley, stated, "Combustion-related air pollution is estimated to be responsible for nearly 2.5 million premature deaths annually around the world and also for a significant portion of greenhouse warming. These studies provide the kind of concrete information needed to choose actions that efficiently reduce this health burden as well as reduce the threat of climate change"
Other methods of reducing greenhouse gases that are suggested in the study include making simple changes in our everyday lives: walking and bicycling more instead of driving cars, and reducing our meat consumption - the raising of cattle and the processing and transportation of the meat products create an exorbitant amount of carbon dioxide emissions. If more people exercised more and ate less meat then that would mean a drastic reduction in cases of heart disease.
Smith also went on to say, "Policymakers need to know that if they exert their efforts in certain directions, they can obtain important public health benefits as well as climate benefits. Climate change threatens us all, but its impact will likely be greatest on the poorest communities in every country. Thus, it has been called the most regressive tax in human history. Carefully choosing how we reduce greenhouse gas emissions will have the added benefit of reducing global health inequities."
It is proposed these researchers that if we start reducing our global greenhouse gas emissions now we could reduce them by 50 percent by 2050. If we start to make changes now, not only will we be repairing this planet, we'll also acquire a better way of life - everybody wins.
To read the entire report, "Health and Climate Change", visit: http://www.thelancet.com/series/health-and-climate-change
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