Giraffes More Speciose than Expected

Ashley Rogers

Dr. Michaela Gazdik Stoffer

Biology 1610-006 Blog Assignment

02/08/2018

Impacts of Global Warming on People

In a previous English college course, I wrote a paper on the impact of global warming on aquatic species.  One student read my paper, and proceeded to question why he should care about what happens to animals in the ocean.  In his reasoning, he did not want to be a zoologist, nor did he even live near an ocean, or any wildlife for that matter.  He is just a boy in a city, and therefore this was a topic that had nothing to do with him.  There seemed to be no way to convince this person about why he should care about endangering animal lives.   As I am an aspiring zoologist, it was difficult for me to believe why someone would not care about animals the way I do.  At the time, my only response was explaining to him why he should love animals, and why he should care about the planet.  Nothing was solved. However, I now see that trying to convince someone that dislikes animals about why they should love animals, is not an effective strategy.  

One of the most overdone arguments for global warming is to point at animals, and talk about the loss of their habitats, and the overall loss of biodiversity due to global warming.  These are completely valid points, with a lot of supportive evidence.  At this point, everyone has heard this argument, probably repeatedly.  The fact of the matter is, some do not care.  I can disagree with them all day long, and they will still hold that opinion.  People need to start talking about climate change head on.  Global warming will impact and almost inevitably increase mortality rates in people.  This is an underestimated argument, that should be heard.  What needs to be discussed more is what polar bears going extinct actually means to human beings.  Or in other words, how will global warming impacting polar bears now, also impact humans in the near future?  While both people and animals are important in my eyes, not everyone is going to see the world through the same eyes that I have.  In the journal article, Climate change and human health: Impacts, vulnerability and public health, the researchers mention many of the possible human related issues that will come from climate change.  The issues mentioned involve heat waves, floods, droughts, and infectious diseases.

Heat waves will be a more common occurrence with climate change.  Rising temperatures equate to increased heat wave activity.  As mentioned in the article, heat waves increase excess mortality rates for everyone, but even more so in elderly people.  There is a chart included showing excess mortality rates during the heatwave in Europe of 2003. Excess mortality rates ranged from 3% in Netherlands, to nearly 60% in France (Haines, Kovats, Campbell-Lendrum, & Corvalan, 2006).  These excess deaths are normally caused by cardiorespiratory issues due to extreme, persistent heat.  This is dangerous, especially to poorer countries who already struggle with bad air conditioning, or without air conditioning at all.  If heat waves can have a huge impact on Europe, a first world continent, with plenty of resources, imagine the impact on countries that do not have resources so readily available to them. One can only imagine.

Floods are deadly by themselves, however, the devastation mentioned in the article is more so about destruction of peoples’ homes, and other property.  They state, “In 1997, river floods in central Europe left over 200,000 people homeless, and more than 100 people were killed.”  Many people could be left homeless, and without loved ones, because of floods caused by global warming (Haines et al., 2006).  Droughts can be just as deadly, and devastating as well.  With recent wildfire activities all over the United States, especially in California, the devastation from having too little water is so prevalent today.  Again, wildfires will become an even more common occurrence as the earth’s temperatures continue to rise. Droughts can also have an impact on overall economy, and availability of crops, according to the article.  The less there is of an item, such as food, the higher the demand.  The higher the demand, the higher the cost.  Many countries will struggle to have affordable, or even just available crops to buy.  Again, this will especially impact poorer countries.

Finally there is the issue of infectious diseases.  One may wonder what disease has to do with climate change.  The article mentions how more annual rainfall, and temperature increase will impact when, and where diseased insects will be able to infect people.  As these insects usually follow seasonal patterns, the seasons will probably be different during climate change. The seasons could be prolonged, or start and end at different times of the year. Different seasons will allow these insects to be active more times during the year, and possibly in more places around the world.  The infectious disease portion of the article contains a graph on which insects will likely have an increased deadly impact on humans, due to climate change (Haines et al., 2006).  At the top of the list, is the deadly mosquito, which is already notorious for taking more human lives than any other animal by transferring malaria.  Global warming would force these already high numbers even higher.  Although we are lucky to have plentiful malaria medical help in the United States, not all countries are so lucky.

In conclusion, I felt it was important to bring up at least a small portion of the global impacts that climate change will have on humans.  Yes, animals may be suffering more so than humans right now.  However, climate change will only continue to be more harmful to humans as time continues.  If some people are not worried about animals, I would hope they would be worried for other human lives.  People need to be more educated on such deadly issues.  Knowledge really is power, and the more one knows about a problem, the better they can solve, or soften the impact of that problem.  It is my hope that more people will see the severity of what climate change will be bringing into the world.

Reference

Haines, A., Kovats, R.S., Campbell-Lendrum, D., & Corvalan C. (2006, July). Climate change and human health: Impacts, vulnerability and public health. Public Health Journal, 120(7), 585-596. Retrieved 02/08/2018, from www.publichealthjrnl.com/article/S0033-3506(06)00005-9/fulltext