(CNSNews.com) -- A new government report says global warming could lead to an increase in both cancer and mental illness worldwide, and it calls for more federally funded research to determine how that might happen.
| It might be a good idea to first determine whether there actually is global warming outside the historic range. I'm even willing to define that historic range as "since the end of the last ice age", as opposed to "since the earth cooled enough for multicellular organisms to exist" or "since the genus Homo has been throwing off species". |
The report, A Human Health Perspective on Climate Change, was published by the Interagency Working Group on Climate Change and Health -- a combination of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIH, State Department, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Agriculture, the EPA, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
| Do these people truly have nothing better to do? |
The report's overall thrust is for more federally funded research to investigate the alleged links between global warming and public health, including the potentially negative effects from warming and the potentially negative side-effect of green technologies.
| What, no thought about the potentially positive effects? An easy one is that nuclear power plants don't emit carbon dioxide, about which y'all used to be so concerned. Windmills, on the other hand, tend to be placed in bird migration corridors, and could result in the extinction of a great many migratory bird species. Skyscrapers have already wreaked havoc, you know. |
While the report touches on, for example, the health effects of unclean water and respiratory ailments, it also deals with two other types of health issues not normally associated with global warming: cancer and mental illness.
While the report does not claim that global warming will cause new types of cancer, it says that "higher ambient temperatures" caused by global warming will have an effect on cancer rates, probably pushing them higher.
"There are potential impacts on cancer both directly from climate change and indirectly from climate change mitigation strategies," the report said.
This increased risk supposedly comes from increased exposure to toxic chemicals, caused by global warming. The report also said that global warming would cause heavy rainfall, which would wash these toxic chemicals into the water. Hotter temperatures may also make these toxic chemicals even more toxic.
I doubt you'll wish to read further, but there is much more at the link. |