Tree-huggers aside, don't joke with climate change!

Let's face it, climate change is a hard sell. It just can't compete with sexy news stories such as the Dudus-Mannatt inquiry or the one about a high-profile churchman walking free of sex crimes, with DNA evidence in tow ... to boot (don't get me started on that one). But the now-sweltering heat should remind us that issues about the climate, environment and ozone layer depletion are not just the domains of 'crazy, tree-hugging environmentalists'. The climate is affecting our lives every minute of the day.

The connection between the climate and health status is not as esoteric as it used to be. International health organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) have been making a compendium of interesting climate and health information. Just take a look of some of the facts:

Climate change affects the fundamental requirements for health, which includes clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter.

By 2004, global warming (occurring since the 1970s) was causing over 140,000 excess deaths annually.

Many of the major killers such as diarrhoeal diseases, malnutrition, malaria and dengue are highly climate-sensitive and are expected to worsen as the climate changes.

Areas with weak health infrastructure - mostly in developing countries - will be the least able to cope without assistance to prepare and respond.

Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases through better transport, food and energy-use choices can result in improved health.

Antagonistic human activity

Let's break down some of this. What exactly is climate change? It's about more than 50 years of human activities that's antagonistic to the earth's sustainability. When fossil fuel (including coal, oil and natural gas) is burned for energy (and it supplies about 90 per cent of global energy), it releases large quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-type gases that trap excess heat in the lower atmosphere. The entrapment of excess heat is affecting our global climate.

As a result, the world is becoming warmer (the global warming phenomenon), sea levels are rising (particularly of interest for low-lying island states), glaciers are melting and weather precipitation patterns are changing. Haven't you been noticing that extreme weather events are more frequent and more intense? Even how intense this early summer heat has become.

Heart and respiratory diseases

It is this climate change, as mentioned earlier, that is affecting our health - clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter. The WHO states, for instance, that "extreme high air temperatures contribute directly to deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory disease, particularly among elderly people" and that "in the heat wave of summer 2003 in Europe, for example, more than 70 000 excess deaths were recorded". Ozone levels and other pollutants are increased during periods of high temperatures, and this affects cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

Take another example, variable rainfall patterns as a result of climate change affect freshwater supply; lack of safe water compromises hygiene and increases the risk of diarrhoeal disease, which kills 2.2 million people every year. No rainfall leads to water scarcity which leads to drought and even famine in some parts of the world. Floods (which we are becoming more accustomed to here) contaminate freshwater supplies, put us at more risk for water-borne diseases and, you guessed it, create breeding grounds for pests such as mosquitoes which can carry diseases.

Much more to say, but I'm out of copy space; maybe we are shaping up for a part two.

Eulalee Thompson is health editor and a professional counsellor; email: eulalee.thompson@gleanerjm.com.