HealthNews Dozen: Top 12 Health Threats Posed by Global Warming

It is generally recognized that global warming presents numerous challenges to the earth and its inhabitants. Many effects that have been predicted by scientists tend to be on the long-term scale and difficult for many people to grasp in real terms. But by throwing deadly diseases into the list of possible consequences of global warming, people tend to pay closer attention.

Global warming consists, in part, of rising temperatures and precipitation levels. And while it may be difficult to know exactly how the human race will adjust, it is easier to gauge how wildlife reacts to such changes. Combining animal-based research with scientifically-based human predictions has led researchers from the National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine to make some predictions. In turn, the Wildlife Conservation Society has identified 12 disease-producing agents that could spread to new regions of the world and eventually affect humans.

The Wildlife Conservation Society report, entitled “The Deadly Dozen: Wildlife Diseases in the Age of Climate Change,” discusses infectious diseases that could threaten the existence of an entire species if not controlled. While the names of some of the diseases, like cholera and plague, may seem remote and the stuff of history books, the ailments are quite real and still exist in various parts of the world. Global warming has the potential to aid the spread of these diseases, which is why it is important to be aware of them and begin looking at ways to prevent their proliferation.

The diseases listed are in alphabetical order, not in any particular order of importance or urgency. Some of them, however, are general in nature, and their individual dangers are being monitored in multiple wildlife species, like cholera, parasites, and Rift Valley fever. Others are transmitted to humans via insects and rodents, like the plague, sleeping sickness, babesiosis, and yellow fever. Avian influenza is, as implied in its name, affects wild birds, while lyme disease is often found in certain types of deer and mice. Ebola generally affects gorillas and chimpanzees, and tuberculosis is often found in cattle before it is transmitted to humans.

Though listing some of the deadliest diseases that the world has ever seen as potential consequences of global warming may seem like a fear tactic, it only goes to show what scientists are discovering about the harmful—and deadly—effects of the destruction of the earth’s ecosystem. Currently, researchers are merely observing and testing wildlife for increases in numbers of disease cases in order to detect potential outbreaks, but the warning is clear. If people do not begin to reverse the warming of the planet, there could be devastating consequences. And it is understood that it will be better to prevent such catastrophes than to wait for it to show up on our doorstep, or more accurately, in our food system or in humans who could spread the diseases quickly.

Some examples of diseases that have caught the human race off guard are the bird flu, which was detected with more frequency recently than anytime since its outbreak in the early 1900s. And in 2002, SARS was transmitted to humans through meat in China, though it was caught before it became an out-of-control spread of the deadly disease.

President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society Dr. Steven E. Sanderson noted, “The health of wild animals is tightly linked to the ecosystems in which they live and influenced by the environment surrounding them, and even minor disturbances can have far-reaching consequences on what diseases they might encounter and transmit as climate changes. Monitoring wildlife health will help us predict where those trouble spots will occur and plan how to prepare.”