Climate change kills 150,000 in 2000, says WHO
( 2003-12-12 10:14) (Xinhua)
Global warming killed 150, 000 people in the year of 2000 and 20,000 this
year alone in a European heatwave, said a report released by the World Health
Organization here Thursday.
Climate change, linked by scientists to human emissions of gases like carbon
dioxide from cars and factories, is causing frequent floods and droughts.
In a report "Climate Change and Human Health - Risks and Responses " launched
during a United Nations' Climate Change conference in Milan, the WHO estimated
climate change was responsible for 2.4 percent of the cases of diarrhea
worldwide, and two percent of all cases of malaria.
The organization said that "an estimated 150,000 deaths ... were caused in
the year 2000 due to climate change," but climate change effects on human health
are often imperfectly perceived.
"The 1990s were the hottest decade on record and the upward trend in the
world's temperature does not look like abating," it said. "In Europe this past
summer, for example, an estimated 20, 000 people died due to extremely hot
temperatures."
The 9th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Frameworks Convention
on Climate Change (COP9), that took place in Milan from Dec. 1, underscored the
commitment of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol and reached agreement on a number of
open issues to make the protocol operational. The European Union's members and
other countries call on all Parties that have not yet done so to ratify the
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