NewScientist: Climate change diagnosed as biggest global health threat - by Catherine Brahic

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Climate change diagnosed as biggest global health threat - by Catherine Brahic

"We have been ignoring the biggest global health threat of the 21st century." This was the message – or maybe confession – spelled out in a report launched by doctors and climatologists in London on Wednesday morning. Over the coming century, climate change will worsen virtually every health problem we know of, from heart disease and heatstroke to salmonella and insect-borne infectious diseases. "The health sector has in the past not only underestimated but completely neglected and ignored the issues," said Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet. "This has not been an issue on the agenda of any professional body in health over the last 10 years in any significant way." The Lancet commissioned the report from a panel of specialists at University College London.