Climate change soon could kill thousands in UK, says report

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Guardian

Climate change could lead to a heatwave in the south-east of England killing 3,000 people within the next decade, a Department of Health report said today.

It put the chances of a heatwave of that severity happening by 2017 at 25%.

Without preventative action, the report said that a nine-day heatwave, with temperatures at 27 degrees, would cause 3,000 immediate deaths, with another 3,350 people dying from heat-related conditions during the summer.

It predicted that there would be an increase in skin cancers due to increased exposure to sunlight and that, over the next half century, air pollution could lead to an extra 1,500 deaths and hospital admissions a year.

While malaria outbreaks were likely to remain rare, the report – Health Effects of Climate Change in the UK 2008 – said health authorities would need to be alert to the dangers posed by possible larger outbreaks of malaria in continental Europe.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/feb/12/greenpolitics.health?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. FWIW, I'm sure that should read "temperatures at 37 degrees"

not '27' (centigrade, of course). We may be wimps in the UK with hot temperatures, but we're not that bad.