The impact of climate change is so great that it could undermine the last 50 years of gains in global health, according to the Lancet Commission report.Weather extremes made worse by climate change are potentially catastrophic and unacceptable, says Commission's project leader Nicolas Watts, who spoke to VOA via Skype.“In terms of drought, we often see corresponding decreases in agricultural productivity, which then in turn has a profound impact on malnutrition, particularly for children,and floods we often see a rise in the rates of infectious diseases, cholera and diarrheal diseases that happen as a result of a breakdown in sanitation.”Increasingly, it’s just hotter, which can be deadly. An extreme heatwave in 2003 left 70,000 people dead across Europe."And those sorts of events are expected to increase in intensity and severity as time goes on."The World Health Organization warns that unless dramatic action is taken to reduce global warming emissions by 2030, approximately 250,000 people will die each year from the effects of climate change.Outdoor air pollution is linked to some three million deaths worldwide, 1.2 million in China alone.Watts says a shift from coal-fired power plants to renewable energy can greatly reduce that danger.“We see immediate declines in hospital admissions and in health care costs, which reduces the burden of already struggling health budgets.
