2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #4

A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook page during the past week. 

Editor's Pick

Why climate change is worsening public health problems

Port-au-Prince Haiti 11-11-17 Men in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, collect water on Nov. 11, 2017. Years after Hurricane Matthew nearly devastated Haiti, its vulnerability only increases. Reuters/Martinez Casares

Around the world, the health care debate often revolves around access.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, recently announced: “All roads lead to universal health coverage.” Discussions for how to translate this vision into a road map for action is central to the agenda of the WHO’s executive board meeting this week in Geneva.

Yet focusing on access is not enough. The imperative for access must be paired with a frank acknowledgment that climate change is making communities around the world more vulnerable to ill health. A 2017 commission of The Lancet, a leading health research journal, tracked the effects of climate change on health and found evidence of harms “far worse that previously understood.”

Even as we move to close the access gap, a string of natural disasters in late 2017, including successive hurricanes and widespread forest fires, threaten to widen the vulnerability gap.

As a global health professional (Sosin) and a cultural anthropologist (Kivland), we have witnessed how the global exchange of health technology, expertise and aid has contributed to dramatic gains in the delivery of health care in Haiti and other settings, especially around infectious diseases. Yet climate change threatens to undermine the health gains in vulnerable communities across the globe.

As firsthand witnesses to sharp health disparities globally, we argue that world leaders need to insist that any health care strategy must address the social and environmental vulnerabilities driving poor health in the first place.

Why climate change is worsening public health problems by Chelsey Kivland & Anne Sosin, The Conversation US, Jan 25, 2018


Links posted on Facebook

Sun Jan 21, 2018

Mon Jan 22, 2018

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Thu Jan 25, 2018

Fri Jan 26, 2018

Sat Jan 27, 2018

Posted by John Hartz on Saturday, 27 January, 2018


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