Climactic Changes As A Health Concern?
The Day After Tomorrow was a great science fiction “end-of-the-world” film. Unfortunately, like many disaster films, it is potentially a greater risk of being a possible future than any of us can really wrap our brain around. This topic is also one that we know ecologists and climatologists are working on. But the CDC has taken this to the next level and is concerned not only about global warming, but about climactic changes in general. To that end, the CDC has a special section on their Web site about how climactic changes affect the health of the public.
Although scientific understanding of the effects of climate change is still emerging, there is a pressing need to prepare for potential health risks. This public health preparedness approach is applied to other threats in the absence of complete data, such as terrorism and pandemic influenza. A wide variety of organizations (federal, state, local, multilateral, private and nongovernmental) is working to address the implications of global climate change. Despite this breadth of activity, the public health effects of climate change remain largely unaddressed.
CDC Web Site
It is an interesting site that the CDC has put together. It lists out the potential problems caused by climactic change and then names the populations that would most likely be affected by these climactic events. It clearly illustrates a world that is changing and how the world’s healthcare needs are changing as well.