Lead environment health scientist says global warming offers a push toward healthier, modern societies.

 Dr. Jonathan Patz is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, as well as the lead author of four reports from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC’s findings consistently indicate that global warming is a threat to human health in multiple ways. 

Dr. Jonathan Patz, Lead IPCC author, Environment and health professor: Climate change is not just a single agent of disease. It's not a single bacterium or a virus or a toxic chemical. It's a process that actually cuts across many exposures, be it a heat wave or ground level ozone smog pollution or affecting infectious diseases. So it's those broad impacts that we're concerned about, and that's why climate change is a much different type of health threat compared to what we're used to dealing with. We're used to finding vaccines and pharmaceuticals and find a cure for certain diseases, but when you disturb the Earth's climate and thereby affect habitats and ecosystems in which biological diseases may emerge, there can be some much broader impacts. 

VOICE: With serious present-day instances such as cyclone-affected Myanmar, concern about climate-related epidemics is at its highest among government health agencies throughout the world. But Dr. Patz is guardedly optimistic, saying that by reducing pollution to stop global warming, we will in effect also be modernizing our lives for the better.

Dr. Jonathan Patz, Lead IPCC author, Environment and health professor: Not only do we reduce the risk of climate related diseases, but in addressing climate change, we can have more effective transportation where people are exercising more. So you have this great benefit of exercise, mental health, community building, that we actually have incentive to make our neighborhoods and our cities healthier. 

VOICE: Another aspect of progress Dr. Patz mentions is a societal shift toward a plant-based diet.

Dr. Jonathan Patz, Lead IPCC author, Environment and health professor: Livestock has been shown to be quite energy intensive, water intensive and land intensive. Converting forest into pasture land, we’ve changed much of our landscape. In fact, agriculture alone has changed the landscape of the planet more than any other driver. So I would advocate getting off of the meat diet; that it really is not sustainable. And not only that, we know from the western diet that too much meat is not good for you and the issue of heart disease and cancer, obesity, diabetes. You get multiple benefits. So you're preserving the environment, you're improving your health. 

VOICE: Dr. Jonathan Patz, we thank you for your insightful and encouraging words. By viewing climate change through the lens of public health, we can better appreciate the value of our protective actions on many levels.


Traffic fumes bring excessive spread of ‘urban hay fever.’

A recent study has found that hay fever symptoms are on the rise due to pollen being spread through exhaust particles from diesel cars. Scientific experts have already noted the presence of pollen in the air long before the traditional hay fever season begins, a phenomenon that is being linked to global warming. Heavy city traffic combined with this earlier spread of pollen due to climate change could lead to an increase in the number of people experiencing hay fever all year round.  

We applaud and thank you, diligent researchers, for these informative findings. May we all find ways, individually and collectively, to reduce diesel exhaust and help restore planetary balance for the enhanced comfort of all planetary inhabitants.   

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