Some of the effects are already being felt. The heat waves of 2003 resulted in 70,000 deaths, mostly from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Increased mortality from heat stroke should be expected soon. As temperatures rise, there will be an increased risk of transmission of insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria. As many as 260 to 320 million more people may be affected by malaria by 2080 as mosquitoes spread into newly warm areas. Pathogens also mutate faster at higher temperatures, making treatment more difficult.

*   *   *

Food supply is another area of concern. One group of U.S. researchers predicts serious crop yield declines and food shortages before 2030, which will put great pressure on prices and demand. Rising food prices have hurt many poor people in the past 2 years, and hunger in south Asia is at a 40-year high. Some estimates suggest that up to half the world’s population could face food shortages by the end of the century because of disruptions caused by climate change.

Then there’s water. In Africa, 250 million people are already deprived of a secure water supply — and the numbers are growing. There are serious droughts in China, Australia, the Middle East, Africa and parts of the United States. Several cities, wealthy as well as poor, such as Barcelona, Adelaide, Kathmandu, Mexico and New Delhi have precarious supplies and may need to import water. And the spread of water-borne diseases is likely to increase as populations are forced to rely on less-clean water sources.

*    *    *

It is encouraging that U.S. President Barack Obama has made climate change a priority, that the Chinese government has announced ambitious emissions reductions and massive investment in renewable energy sources, and that the climate debate is recognizing this is not just an environmental issue but one that threatens our health and survival.

But we don’t have much time. Current climate developments are at the very worst end of the computer model predictions. Every year of delay increases the costs and difficulties of effective action. Unless this challenge finds its way to the top of the international agenda, this century could be a disaster movie without a happy ending. (By Anthony Costello)

Anthony Costello is director of the Institute for Global Health at University College London. The report, Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change, was published May 13.

Source: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/24/running_a_temperature_0

Tropical cyclones will likely become more frequent and more intense, rainfall will increase and sea level may rise by up to nearly a metre as tropical sea surface temperatures increase.

The incidence of mosquito-borne diseases, in particular, is likely to change. In some tropical regions both cyclones and floods create breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that carry malaria and dengue. Poor populations in coastal areas are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise and the associated threat of mosquito-borne disease.

In South and South-East Asia, the last decade has brought many disasters, including devastating floods in the Indian states of Gujarat and Mumbai, super cyclones in India, Bangladesh and Myanmarand tsunamis affecting India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

With the exception of the super cyclones, all these events exacerbated mosquito-borne diseases, particularly malaria.

[C]hikungunya, a disease that had all but been forgotten in India, has reappeared in southern parts of the country and by May 2007 had spread to almost all districts in Kerala. Though the igniting factors could not be pinpointed, the underlying reason is the climate changes that helped Aedes mosquitoes breed and survive. (By Jai P. Narain)

Source: http://air.environmental-expert.com/resultEachPressRelease.aspx?cid=33596&codi=62107&lr=1&idCategory=17

“As Arctic sea ice recedes due to climate change, there is increasing interest in commercial fishing in Arctic waters,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement yesterday. “We are in a position to plan for sustainable fishing that does not damage the overall health of this fragile ecosystem. This plan takes a precautionary approach to any development of commercial fishing in an area where there has been none in the past.”

Crafted by the regional fishery management council in Alaska, the new Arctic Fishery Management Plan closes about 150,000 square nautical miles, an area larger than California and five times larger than all national parks combined.

The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council last winter voted unanimously in favor of the plan, which bars industrial fishing in U.S. waters north of the Bering Strait, including the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. (E&ENews PM, Feb. 5). (By Allison Winter of Greenwire)

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/08/21/21greenwire-us-bans-commercial-fishing-in-warming-arctic-33236.html

Hatoyama, who will take office next week, said Japan would seek to reduce CO2 emissions by 25% below 1990 levels by 2020, but said the target would be contingent on a deal involving all major emitters in Copenhagen in December.

“We can’t stop climate change just by setting our own emissions target,” he said at a forum in Tokyo. “Our nation will call on major countries around the world to set aggressive goals.”

Hatoyama will discuss the initiative, which is far more ambitious than the equivalent 8% cut unveiled by the outgoing government in June, at a UN meeting on climate change in New York this month.

Hatoyama said his plan would create jobs in sectors such as renewables and manufacturing.

“There are cautious people who worry that it will hurt the economy and livelihoods, but I think it will change things for the better,” he said.

Kim Carstensen, the head of the WWF’s global climate initiative, said: “The decision by an important player such as Japan to do more and get serious about a low carbon future can help break the deadlock between developed and developing countries.

The target brings Japan, the world’s fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, alongside the EU, which is committed to a 20% cut by 2020 from 1990 levels and 30% if other nations agree to match the target. (By Justin McCurry)

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/07/japan-greenhouse-gas-cuts

Environmental Defense Fund is dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people, including future generations. Among these rights are access to clean air and water, healthy and nourishing food and flourishing ecosystems.

Guided by science, Environmental Defense Fund evaluates environmental problems and works to create and advocate solutions that win lasting political, economic and social support because they are nonpartisan, cost-efficient and fair.

Environmental Defense Fund believes that a sustainable environment will require economic and social systems that are equitable and just. We affirm our commitment to the environmental rights of the poor and people of color.

As an American organization, Environmental Defense Fund will always pay special attention to American environmental problems and to America’s role in both causing and solving global environmental problems.

For more information, visit www.edf.org.

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If we do pass this critical threshold, global temperatures could soar by as much as 6 degrees.

If this happens, the natural world will suffer a mass extinction event which will wipe out the majority of the plants and animals with which we currently share the planet – although there will be a lot more rats, flies, cockroaches and mosquitoes as the world’s ecosystems go into meltdown.

Rodents and Insects Killed the Dinosaurs – Will They Kill You, Too?

By Bill Jemas, Edited by Candyce Cook

Human beings are under attack by enemies so numerous and resourceful that we cannot possibly survive the onslaught without help.

The human race likes to think we crossed the evolutionary finish line in first place. We imagine ourselves ranking above all other species, superior to any other predator. Lions and tigers and bears my butt. They can’t hurt us anymore; their very existence depends on our continued generosity.

Some of us believe that a Creator placed us above all creatures great and small, giving us free reign to do as we please with them[i].

Some of us believe we evolved to possess the perfect brains and bodies, making us capable of domesticating – or destroying – any other species at will.

Most of us feel that we sit securely atop the animal kingdom[ii].

Few of us see ourselves as an endangered species going the way of the dinosaurs. Dinos engaged in a genetic arms race, growing monstrously large teeth, claws, muscles, horns and/or body armor. They were the dominant species . . .

The time has come to take a close look back at what really killed every last dinosaur – and a clear look ahead at what threatens all of us.

Here’s what we want to believe about hundreds of millions of long-dead monsters – and why we want to believe it

Scientists postulate that the extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by immense asteroids crashing from the heavens and awesome volcanic eruptions. The idea is that those asteroids and volcanoes hurled vast clouds of ash into the atmosphere, blocking the light of the sun and starting an ice age. Their environment suddenly and drastically altered, the cold-blooded monsters then froze to death.[iii]

Religious people like this because it sets a nice precedent:

They like to believe that nothing short of an ‘act of God’ destroyed the fearsome dinos…and that it will take another one to kill us.

Rich people like this guess because it fits their ideology; namely, that free-market competition leads to economic prosperity.

They like to believe that evolution is driven by a competition among individuals in which only the strongest survive…and that a natural disaster of epic proportion alone could kill the most powerful species, whether that be the dinosaurs…or homo sapiens.

As is so often true when the religious and the wealthy agree on something, the asteroid/volcano guess has been elevated to conventional wisdom among scientists (and, consequently, the general public).

Sadly, the conventional wisdom just doesn’t add up.

Though not granted the same authority as the faithful or the rich, some very knowledgeable paleontologists persist in pointing out that an impact/eruption scenario would have caused a rapid extinction – but the dinosaurs did not go quickly[iv].

They died over hundreds of thousands – possibly millions – of years ago.

Some very bright high school student could point out that in the ice age scenario, a deep-freeze would have killed off all of the cold-blooded animals, including turtles and alligators – but this clearly isn’t the case, either.

What could be encouraging about the horrific mass extinction of every damned dinosaur?

One very likely cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs is that newly-evolved rodents ate up all the dinosaur eggs.[v] In the day of the dinosaurs, there were four main species that would become the ancestors of the long-term survivors: reptiles, fish, birds and mammals.

The most successful reptiles – like alligators and turtles – bury their eggs.[vi]

The most successful fish travel long distances to lay eggs in safe waters and/or lay eggs by the thousands. [vii]

The most successful birds are those most willing to sacrifice their lives to protect their eggs (e.g. using brightly colored plumage and load songs to lead predators away from the nest)[viii].

And mammals, the most successful of all species, provide the greatest protection to their young via the internal gestation process.

The triumphant species – those whose descendents have survived all the way to the present day – were the best parents.

Therefore, it is quite encouraging that human beings, at our best, do a great job of caring for and looking after our children.

What could be more terrifying than every damned dinosaur dying in a mass extinction?

According to recent studies, 70 million years ago, just before point that the dinosaurs became extinct, the insect population exploded[ix]:

Enormous swarms of herbivore insects ravaged the forests and meadows. Their increasing numbers so drastically decreased the food supply for herbivore dinosaurs that a lot of them starved. So too the carnivores who fed on the herbivores.[x]

Swarms of blood-sucking insects, like mosquitoes and ticks, began biting dinosaurs.

Just like their annoying modern-day descendants, those ancient bloodsuckers carried deadly diseases – like malaria and Leishmania.

It is also likely that the ancient rodents, who developed immunities to insect-borne diseases, helped spread disease geographically.[xi]

Those ancient dinosaurs died of those insect-borne diseases…just as human beings do today.

What is more terrifying is that the human race appears to be heading the way of the dinosaurs.

Pandemics pose an enormous threat to human life. Diseases are evolving into strains that are increasingly dangerous and more difficult to treat.

New strains of tuberculosis, staff and e-coli resist our most powerful antibiotics, subjecting their victims to agonizing deaths.[xii]

Diseases carried by insects, rats and mice may prove impossible to contain.

Malaria kills a million people each year – mostly in Africa, but also in Latin America.[xiii] The West Nile Virus, also carried by mosquitoes, successfully migrated to the United States and poses a serious health threat.

In a natural environment, birds, bats, frogs and turtles keep insect populations under control, creating a buffer zone between dangerous microbes and human beings.

But deforestation, pollution and industrial agriculture kill billions of birds, bats, frogs and turtles, allowing insect populations to surge by the hundreds of billions.[xiv] So much for that buffer zone.

Insects that carry disease thrive on rodents.  As we destroy foxes, wolves, and birds of prey, rodent populations are exploding. The dots of disaster starting to connect yet?

To make matters worse, it isn’t just disease that is getting more virulent: insects have evolved into strains that resist our highly toxic pesticides.[xv] While our pesticides may not be powerful enough to control the insect populations they’re intended for – they are strong enough to kill birds, bats, frogs and turtles.[xvi] This will, of course, enable pernicious insect populations to explode.

Human beings are an endangered species under attack by predators so numerous and resourceful that we cannot possibly survive the onslaught  – not without help from other species.

We, the people have perched ourselves atop an artificial pedestal of industry and chemistry. We are learning the hard way that “survival of the fittest” is just a slogan. To protect the lives of our children and grandchildren, we must now learn to fit in with a broad range of fellow creatures – to protect and preserve the diversity of life.

[In} a book titled What Bugged the Dinosaurs, from the Princeton University Press. Authors George and Roberta Poinar (George is a zoologist at Oregon State University and a former World Health Organization consultant on infectious disease) specialize in ancient insects preserved in amber (a key plot element in the movie Jurassic Park) and also in fossilized dinosaur poop. Among other things in their lode, they've found ticks, nematodes, biting flies and all sorts of other nasties, including intestinal parasites, dating back to the Cretaceous period. From some of the insects, the Poinars have extracted microbes that cause leishmania and malaria — evidently new pathogens back then, against which dinosaurs wouldn't have had much resistance. . . . One great quote from the book: "The largest of the land animals, the dinosaurs, would have been locked in a life-or-death struggle with [insects] for survival.”

(By Michael D. Lemonick)

Source: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1702501,00.html

[T]he exponential growth of insect numbers is well and truly on the cards if global warming continues unabated. They won’t be huge in size, but there will be an awful lot of them. In fact, each day that politicians choose to ignore global warming trends, the more likely it is that we can expect sky-rocketing insect numbers in the future. According to the latest research, the thermal dependence of population growth rate for 65 insect species showed that warmer climes allow insects to flourish.

[A]nd there is yet another problem that will likely compound the concerns associated with increasing insect populations. Despite the millions that died as a result of plague during the 14th and 17th centuries, people still forget that insects were responsible for spreading these diseases. But, crazily, officials seem more concerned with disease carrying livestock and other large animals. “Most scientists are looking at diseases of farm animals as the biggest threat to humans. Insects are numerous and reside in proximity to man, yet they have been generally ignored as a potential source of microbes that could be harmful for man,” said University of Bath researcher Nick Waterfield.

“There are countless species of bacteria in insects, and sometimes they cause emerging infectious diseases by becoming harmful to people – in other words, by evolving into a new type of disease which we haven’t seen before,” says Waterfield. “The species of bacteria may have been around for centuries, but it is just that a new strain evolves that is suddenly able to infect humans as well as other animals.”

*  *  *

Insect swarms? Pestilence? Plague? It all sounds rather biblical (sorry Mr. Dawkins). I’d hazard a guess that giant bugs would be preferable to most people. At least we might be able to farm them for food, or ride on them! But with warming trends looking to continue unabated, we may just have a different insect nightmare to contend with. (By Rusty Rockets)

Source: http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/insects_climate.shtml

“When temperature increases, the diversity of insect feeding damage on plant species also increases,” said lead author Ellen Currano, from Pennsylvania State University. . . In addition, research has shown that plants grown under higher concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) are less nutritious, so insects must eat more plant tissue to get the same sustenance. These earlier studies support the recent findings about the PETM.

Because food webs that involve plant-eating insects affect as much as three quarters of organisms on Earth, the researchers believe that the current increase in temperature could have a profound impact on present ecosystems, and potentially to crops, if the pattern holds true in modern times. (By Kate Melville)

Source: . http://www.scienceagogo.com/news20080111202125data_trunc_sys.shtml

Rats can damage buildings by gnawing through materials. They can also spread disease and illness.

Experts say a number of factors are responsible for the increase. Many blame climate change, in particular the wetter weather. Peter Crowden, a pest controller in the East Midlands warned: “The rats are moving into city centers where there’s a ready-made food supply for them, from fast food restaurants to rubbish being left about.

Disease is another major concern. Hair, droppings and urine can contaminate food and surfaces.  It is estimated between 15% and 30 % of the rat population carries the potentially deadly Weils Disease.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7151504.stm

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