Klimat och hälsa…

Jag kan inte blogga på svenska – so I hope English is OK for you!

I’ve been looking around COP15 for people who are interested in the effects of climate change on health. You might think that would be easy – if changes in climate lead to more droughts, floods and heat, then those events will change patterns of disease and additional people will die. But actually it is easier to find groups in Copenhagen who are concerned about the effects of climate on various animal and plant species, than on human health.

More than 50 years ago, the world discovered that smoking tobacco leads to greater chances of disease and death. Surely the obvious thing then, back in the 1950s, would have been to outlaw tobacco smoking? But no, millions of people across the world continue to smoke… and many get ill and die as a result.

So will the world be content to live with climate change for the next 50 years – emitting just as much carbon, not changing lifestyles – and guaranteeing higher chances of disease and death for generations to come? Let’s hope that by the end of next week, when more than half of the world’s governmental leaders will be in Copenhagen, that the message to them that they need to act, and act NOW, will be clear. There’s a slogan around here "Let’s turn Copenhagen into Hopenhagen" – so let’s hope that comes true next week.

Peter Byass