Climate change is a major threat to human
health, with extreme heat likely to kill 27,000
Americans annually by 2100, according to a
report released Monday by the White House.
The report, by the U.S. Global Change
Research Program, outlines numerous ways
global warming could devastate public
health in the U.S. this century.
Projected increase in deaths due to
warming in summer (April-September) and
winter (October-March), and net change in
deaths compared to 1990 baseline period
for 209 U.S. cities examined. Data from
Schwartz et al. 2015.
Click Image to Enlarge. Credit: U.S. Global
Change Research Program
Global warming will lead to heat waves so
extreme that in the hottest times of the year,
it will be “physiologically impossible” for
people who work outdoors to do their jobs,
John Holdren, a science advisor to the
Obama administration, said during a news
conference about the report.
“People who work outdoors will be unable
to control their body temperature and will
die,” he said. “This is a really, really big deal.”
A 2015 Climate Central analysis of climate
threats through 2050 for all 50 states, States
at Risk, found heat to be the greatest threat
of all, and the one for which most states,
particularly high-risk states in the South,
were poorly prepared.
Climate change will pose a major health
threat to people of color, indigenous people
and low-income communities, according to
the report. It will lead to worsening air
pollution, expose more people to
waterborne illnesses, leave the American
food supply vulnerable to a greater number
of toxins and will potentially devastate the
U.S. healthcare infrastructure as it becomes
exposed to extreme weather.
By the end of the century, climate change
will kill many tens of thousands of people
every year in the U.S. because of disease and
more extreme heat waves, tornadoes,
hurricanes, floods, winds, lightning, cold
snaps and winter storms, the report said.
“For the first time in history we’ve been able
to show it’s not just about polar bears and
melting ice caps, it’s about our families and
about our future,” Gina McCarthy, the
administrator of the Environmental
Protection Agency administrator, said. “Every
part of the U.S. is impacted now by climate
and is going to be increasingly impacted if
we do not take action now to reduce those
impacts.” www.climatecentral.org/news/white-house-climate-change-poses-urgent-public-health-risk-20210?utm_content=buffer22b1b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer