Climate Change Represents Public Health Crisis, Damaging World’s Oceans, Reports Warn

ABC News: Why climate change is also a public health problem
“Climate change — marked by rising sea levels, ice loss, and extreme weather — is accelerating, according to a new report, which found that the five-year period between 2014 and 2019 was the warmest on record. … While climate change’s environmental effects are well-documented, it’s not just the planet that stands to suffer as climate change intensifies, explained Joy Shumake-Guillemot from the [World Meteorological Organization (WMO)]. The climate crisis is also a public health crisis. … As the Earth warms, extreme weather events, increased disease risk and even compromised health facilities could become more common…” (Schumaker, 9/25).

New York Times: The World’s Oceans Are in Danger, Major Climate Change Report Warns
“Climate change is heating the oceans and altering their chemistry so dramatically that it is threatening seafood supplies, fueling cyclones and floods and posing profound risks to the hundreds of millions of people living along the coasts, according to a sweeping United Nations report issued Wednesday. … Fish populations are already declining in many regions as warming waters throw marine ecosystems into disarray, according to the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders in policymaking…” (Plumer, 9/25).

Additional coverage of the reports is available from The Atlantic, BBC, CBS, CNN, The Guardian, NPR, Quartz, and VOA News.

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