Climate change poses challenge to preventive medicine

…Unmitigated global warming will cause death and disease on a vast scale. The dramatic images of melting glaciers and polar ice translate into flooded cities, rising temperatures, drought, crop failure, famine and epidemics of dengue, malaria and other diseases. An increase in the number and intensity of severe storms conjures images of suffering in New Orleans after Katrina.

These catastrophic effects on health will be borne by the poor and socially disadvantaged populations who are least able to adapt to the multiple threats of global warming. Preventing these effects of global warming would be the crowning achievement in preventive medicine for this century.

As seen from a physician