Climate change is causing blindness

A new study conducted by Canadian experts compared rates of vision problems among 1.7 million people from across all 50 US states and found those who lived in warmer areas were twice as likely to suffer from serious vision impairment.

Exposure to the sun's ultraviolet light damages the cornea, lens and retina and also causes eye irritation and infection.

The boffins described the findings as "very worrying" in the context of global warming that has seen the world's average temperatures rise by 1.1C since the late 1800s.

Study co-author Esme Fuller-Thompson, a gerontologist at the University of Toronto, said: "With climate change, we are expecting a rise in global temperatures. It will be important to monitor the prevalence of vision impairment among older adults in the future.

"This link between vision impairment and average country temperature is very worrying, if future research determines that the association is causal."

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