Address climate change or risk global depression: economist
Failure to tackle the problem of climate change could trigger a worldwide economic slowdown along the same level as the Great Depression, warns a new report from a British economist.
Written by former World Bank economist Sir Nicholas Stern at the request of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the 700-page report was released on Monday.
"Our actions over the coming decades could create risks of major disruption to economic and social activity, later in this century and in the next, on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and the economic depression of the first half of the 20th century," says the report.
Failure to immediately tackle climate change could see global economic growth shrink by 20 per cent and cost the world economy close to $7 trillion US, warns Stern.
The report suggests other effects could include:
200 million new refugees as people are displaced by severe flooding or droughts.
Water shortages for one in six people.
A spike in world temperatures of up to 5 C.
Melting glaciers that could lead to water shortages.
20 to 40 per cent of wildlife species to become extinct.
More at http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/10/30/climate-cost.html
Monday, October 30, 2006
Thursday, October 12, 2006
New study links traffic pollution to heart attacks
Pollution from automobile traffic is linked with a significantly increased risk of heart attacks, according to a study published Oct. 11
An increase in traffic near the home was associated with a 4 percent increase in the risk of having a heart attack, and living near a major road was associated with a 5 percent increase, according to the study by six Massachusetts researchers.
The study was published online in Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The six researchers were from the Harvard School of Public Health, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and University of Massachusetts Medical School.
"We observed a significant association between exposure to traffic near the place of residence and the occurrence of acute myocardial infarction," the study said.
The research team analyzed the pollution levels near homes of 5,049 people in Worcester, Mass., who had heart attacks between 1995 and 2003 and compared that information to pollution of 10,277 people who did not have a heart attack.
http://www.ehponline.org/members/2006/9587/9587.pdf
An increase in traffic near the home was associated with a 4 percent increase in the risk of having a heart attack, and living near a major road was associated with a 5 percent increase, according to the study by six Massachusetts researchers.
The study was published online in Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The six researchers were from the Harvard School of Public Health, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and University of Massachusetts Medical School.
"We observed a significant association between exposure to traffic near the place of residence and the occurrence of acute myocardial infarction," the study said.
The research team analyzed the pollution levels near homes of 5,049 people in Worcester, Mass., who had heart attacks between 1995 and 2003 and compared that information to pollution of 10,277 people who did not have a heart attack.
http://www.ehponline.org/members/2006/9587/9587.pdf
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