Newspaper/magazine/other media articles:
Cooke R. Impact of global warming on health debated. Harvard University Gazette Online. Available on March 23, 2008: http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/02.21/01-aaas.html
Differing views on hot topic clash at AAAS symposium. February 18, 2008 at the Annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science a colloquium: “Sustaining Human Health in a Changing Global Environment” featured contrary views regarding hazards that can be expected as a result of climate change.
Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and Global Environment at Harvard Medical School argued of real danger in CC: heat waves, flooding, infectious diseases through spread of pests and diseases among livestock, wildlife and agricultural systems, forests, and coastal marine life.
Duane Gubler: director of Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease (Honolulu) said it is too easy to blame GW for dangerous problem of ID spreading, or re-emerging, in areas where they’ve been absent for a century or more. Gubler says that reemergence of ID in the 1980s has little to do with GW; instead they include increases in population density of vectors: mosquitoes and ticks with too little attention being paid to public health practices, increased crowding in cities, genetic changes in disease organisms, rapid transportation of harmful viruses and bacteria around the globe and complaisance about the dangers—a sense that ID had bee conquered. Gubler noted that preventive medicine is not emphasized in medical schools—they now focus on “curative” medicine: “we don’t even emphasize hand-washing anymore.” Gubler sites examples where emergence of ID seems related to other causes than GW: increased deer population in NE U.S. with expansion of the tick population. The deer population increased because of farmlands returning to forests and advent of people building homes in the woods where deer ticks abound. In Asia, livestock producers set up large piggeries adjacent to forests, the home of fruit bats that carry the Nipah virus which causes flu symptoms and may be fatal. The virus got into pigs and from pigs to humans. Malaria re-emergence in tropical regions is a result of a breakdown in public health practices, such as mosquito control.
Epstein argued that excess CO2 in air carries health consequences: ragweed grown in elevated CO2 levels produces pollen disproportionate to its stem growth. Fossil fuel mining, extraction, refining, transport and combustion harm health and the environment, especially in developing nations. Clean energy and technology transition can improve public health, help stabilize the climate, and become the engine of economic growth and poverty alleviation in the 21st century.
Gardner A. Global warming will cause rise in death rates: Toll won’t be offset by milder winters, researchers predict. Available online at: http://www.healthonnet.org/News/HSN/605977.html
News article reviews paper by Mercedes Medina-Ramon, a research fellow at Harvard School of Public Health and published in the online issue June 28, 2007, Occupational and Environ Medicine. Study based on analysis of daily death and weather data for more than 6.5 million deaths (1989-2000 in 50 U.S. cities. During two-day cold snaps, deaths increased 1.59% (many due to heart attacks and cardiac arrest); but during scorchers, death rates went up by 5.74%. Installing air-conditioners in every home isn’t a solution since it would add to global warming. “We should increase the use of air-conditioning but stop the abuse.”
Global Warming Newspaper Archive. History of Global Warming. Available online March 23, 2008 at: http://www.globalwarmingarchive.com/History.aspx
The first theory of GW came in 1824 when French mathematician Jean Baptists Joseph Fourier discovered that the Earth’s temperature was slowly increasing. Fourier argued the earth’s atmosphere traps solar radiation and reflects it back toward earth.
Global Warming News: Ignoring science and law, Bush administration blocks state progress on curbing global warming emissions from cars. Environment California. Available March 23, 2008 online at: http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/newsroom/global-warming-news/global-warming-news2/ignoring-s...
U.S. EPA formally denied CA’s request for a Clean Air Act waiver of preemption, blocking the efforts of CA and 12 other states that seek to require automakers to cut pollution from automobile tailpipes.
Hebert HJ, Gross D. White House denies editing CDC testimony. Associated Press, Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:28;48 GMT.
“The White House significantly edited testimony prepared for a Senate hearing on the impact of climate change on health, deleting key portions citing diseases that could flourish in a warmer climate, documents obtained by AP showed Wednesday.”
Illinois Wesleyan: News-Founders’ Day Speaker James Hansen: Global Warming an Immediate Threat. February 20, 2008, Bloomington, Illinois. Available on March 23, 2008 online at: http://www2.iwu.edu/CurrentNews/newsreleases08/spk_Hansen208.shtml
NASA’s Goddard Institute Director James Hansen discussed GW. Hansen called on the young people in the audience to slow the devastating damage being done to the planet through the use of fossil fuels. Hansen expressed fear that the planet is reaching an irreversible tipping point with GW. One such tipping point has already been reached according to Hansen: the alarming loss in polar ice. Even as the Earth stands on the precipice of global change, Hansen can see hope for the planet. “There can also be a tipping point of social change,…If we follow business as usual, then the Earth will warm past a point of no return. Hansen is member of the National Academy of Sciences and twice received the NASA Presidential Rank for Meritorious Executive Award. He was named by Time Magazine in 2006 as one of the world’s 100 most influential people.
Kay J. Global warming health effects: Smog, heat waves may contribute to big rise in illness. San Fran Chronicle April 17, 2008.
This Chronicle Environment Writer summarizes findings presented Monday (April 16, 2007) by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Kerry J. Bush takes a backseat. Time. 2002;160(9):A49.
John Kerry: “Nowhere is presidential leadership more lacking than in the debate over global warming. It took the Bush Administration 16 months to acknowledge what scientists have known for more than a decade: the same pollution—primarily from fossil fuels—that causes asthma and respiratory illness is also altering and warming the atmosphere. Refusing to address climate change may being unprecedented environmental damage to the health and well-being of people throughout the world.”
Makhijani A. Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. Bad news on climate; good news on energy. March 3, 2008. Available March 24, 2008 online: http://ieer.typepad.com/ieer/
Review of this authors publications and media presentations regarding climate change. Featured on Dallas PBS TV program Think, talking about the author’s publication: Carbon-Free and Nuclear Free.
Osborne H. Guardian.co.uk: Stern report: the key points. October 30, 2006. Available March 23, 2008 online at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/oct/30/economy.uk/print
Economist from London School of Economics outlines dangers of climate change and recommended actions with economic impacts. All countries will be affected by CC, the poorest will suffer the most. Global stabilization of temperature and CO2 is critical. Policies needed: carbon pricing, through taxation; technology policies and energy efficiencies. Unabated CC could cost the world at least 5% of GDP but if dramatic predictions came to pass it could be 20% of GDP. We need to start now in addressing this major global challenge.
Public Broadcasting System (PBS). NOW. Science and Health: The Political Climate. Available March 23, 2008, online at: http://www.pbs.org/now/science/climatechange.html
History and timeline of GW, from 1904 Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius, the first person to investigate the effect that doubling atmospheric CO2 would have on global climate to 2005 Senator James Inhofe Senate floor speech condemning the idea of global warming as “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”
David Brancaccio, PBS host of the program NOW, narrates a 10 minute video regarding the extent to which corporations involved in current fossil fuel energy production have led a major effort by lobbying Congress and the White House to slow initiatives that would shift resources from fossil fuel energy production to alternative energy sources. The majority of scientists believe the latter strategy will be critical to stabilize global CO2 and temperatures to avert major potentially catastrophic impacts on the planet.
San Bernardino Global Warming Plan Settles California Lawsuit. Available March 23, 2008 online at: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2007/2007-08-21-091.asp
August 21, 2007 a unique greenhouse gas reduction plan to combat global warming was agreed upon today to settle a lawsuit brought against the county by the state of California.
Schmidt CW. Global earth observations for health. NIEHS News. Environ Health Perspectives 2005;113(11):A738-39.
Discusses recent meeting of the NIEHS, U.S. EPA and Earth scientists in a workshop to explore the potential role of Earth satellite remote sensing technology for research in climate and public health sciences. NOAA and NASA were involved. Web-based pilot studies that integrate existing remote-sensing data with ground-based analyses will be a preliminary step of exploring this technology.
Shoof R. Panel: Global-warming mass extinctions preventable. McClatchy Washington Bureau, February 19, 2008. Available March 23, 2008 online: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/28095.html
Schoof reports on a recent meeting of IPCC that suggested that, based on more than 40 scientific studies, unless there is mitigation regarding GW, more than 40% of known plant and animal species could become extinct by 2100. Some paleontologists have suggested the world is already witnessing a sixth mass extinction. In January 2008, 600 scientists wrote to Congress saying that it is time to act re GW.
Taubes G. Global Warming: Apocalypse Not. Sci Magazine 1997;278(5340):1004-1006.
Predictions that global warming will spark epidemics have little basis, according to infectious disease specialists, who argue that public health measures will inevitably outweigh effects of climate. Harvard physician Paul Epstein says GW will mean spread of infections (malaria, dengue, yellow fever, cholera, hantavirus, Ebola.) Others such as Duane Gubler (Dir. division of vector-borne ID at CDC and Johns Hopkins epidemiologist DA Henderson argue that breakdown in public health rather than climate shifts are to blame for recent disease outbreaks and that public health measures will be far more important than climate in future disease patterns.
United Nations Environment Programme. The Environment News, Thursday, November 1, 2007. Available March 23, 2008 at: http://www.unep.org/cpi/briefs/2007Nov01.doc
Presents numerous news accounts from around the world regarding Climate Change: current effects on human existence and concerns about the future. Excellent “grass roots” accounts of the impact of GW on the planet and plans for mitigation and adaptation.