Climate change claims 1.5 lakh lives a year

Climate changes resulting from global warming is leading to at least five million cases of illness and claiming more than 150,000 lives around the world every year, said a study.

According to the report, published in the journal Nature, human-induced changes in the Earth's climate is responsible for these illness and deaths.

However, the health impacts of climate change affect different regions in markedly different ways. Ironically, the places that have contributed the least to warming the Earth are the most vulnerable to death and disease higher temperatures can bring, the report said.

A recent assessment by the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that rich countries of the West, which have contributed the maximum to global warming, are at the least risk for enduring the health effects of climate change.

"It seems even the nature is biased towards the developed countries," the report maintained.

"Those least able to cope and least responsible for the greenhouse gases that cause global warming are most affected. Herein lies an enormous global ethical challenge," said lead researcher Jonathan Patz.

Regions at highest risk for enduring the health effects of climate change include coastlines along the Pacific and Indian Oceans and sub-Saharan Africa.

Large sprawling cities, with their urban "heat island" effect, are also prone to temperature-related health problems. Africa has some of the lowest per capita emissions of greenhouse gases. Yet, regions of the continent are gravely at risk for warming-related disease.

"Many of the most important diseases in poor countries, from malaria to diarrhoea and malnutrition, are highly sensitive to climate. The health sector is already struggling to control these diseases and climate change threatens to undermine these efforts," said co-researcher Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum.