{"id":101117,"date":"2017-11-06T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=101117"},"modified":"2017-11-13T11:49:11","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T11:49:11","slug":"climate-changes-impact-on-human-health-is-already-here-and-is-potentially-irreversible-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/11\/climate-changes-impact-on-human-health-is-already-here-and-is-potentially-irreversible-report-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Change’s Impact on Human Health Is Already Here \u2014 And Is ‘Potentially Irreversible,’ Report Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

30 Oct 2017 – The U.S. federal government should adopt a strategy to manage climate change risks, as their cost to the government may rise as much as $35 billion per year by mid-century, a congressional watchdog office report released today said.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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(Photo: Ajit Solanki, AP)<\/p><\/div>\n

Climate change is already having an extraordinary\u00a0impact on human health worldwide\u00a0\u2014\u00a0affecting the spread of infectious diseases, exposing millions to air pollution and heat waves\u00a0and dramatically reducing labor productivity, according to\u00a0 a\u00a0report released Monday.<\/p>\n

“The\u00a0human\u00a0symptoms\u00a0of climate\u00a0change\u00a0are\u00a0unequivocal\u00a0and\u00a0potentially irreversible,” the\u00a0report by the British medical journal The Lancet<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>says, and\u00a0the situation is so serious that significant gains by modern medicine and technology are being undercut.<\/p>\n

“The delayed response to climate change over the past 25 years has jeopardized human life and livelihoods,” the report\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

While most previous similar studies have covered the potential impact\u00a0of climate change on future public health problems, the Lancet<\/em> report goes a step further and illustrates how it\u00a0is no longer a future threat but a present one.<\/p>\n

The direct effects of climate change “result from rising temperatures and changes in the frequency and strength of storms, floods, droughts\u00a0and heat waves \u2014 with physical and mental health consequences,” it says.<\/p>\n

For example, from\u00a02000 to 2016, there has been a 46% increase in the number of weather-related disasters, the report notes.<\/p>\n

Some of the\u00a0findings of the\u00a0Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change<\/em><\/a>\u00a0report:<\/p>\n