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Contents: Millions worldwide may die from heat and disease as global warming worsens. The world's leading authority on global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is a United Nations-sponsored organization made up of 2,500 scientists from around the world. The IPCC projects that more frequent and more severe heat waves will be an early effect of global warming. Events such as the deadly stretch of hot days that killed 669 people in the Midwest during the summer of 1995 and 250 in the Eastern United States in July 1999 are likely to become more common. Scientists are already finding that the number and intensity of extreme weather events are increasing.
In association with a warm winter and prolonged drought, New York City experienced a significant outbreak of West Nile virus in the summer of 1999. Seven New Yorkers died from mosquitoes infected with the virus. The infected larvae survived the mild winter temperatures and the city experienced another outbreak of the virus in 2000. Birds infected with West Nile virus have also been found in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. When McAllen, Texas suffered a severe outbreak of dengue fever in 1995, the Houston Chronicle's headline read,"Warming Climate Invites Dengue Fever to Texas." Epidemiologists reported that an unusually mild winter and hotter than normal summer contributed to the spread of the disease, which is carried by mosquitoes. Outbreaks of encephalitis, another mosquito-borne illness with strong links to warmer temperatures, also appear to be on the rise. Since 1987 there have been major outbreaks in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
Infectious disease is the second major threat that global warming poses to
human health. As temperatures rise, disease-carrying mosquitoes and rodents move into new
areas, infecting people in their wake. Scientists at the Harvard Medical School have linked
recent US outbreaks of dengue ("breakbone") fever, malaria, hantavirus and other
diseases to climate change. 
Global warming could mean
millions more around the world will become infected with malaria. Since 1990, the start of the
hottest decade on record, outbreaks of locally
transmitted malaria have occurred in
California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New
Jersey and New York. IPCC
scientists project that as warmer temperatures spread north and south from the tropics,
and to higher elevations, malaria-carrying mosquitoes will spread with them. They conclude
that global warming will likely put as much as 65% of the world's population at risk of
infection—an increase of 20%.