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According to his scarily accurate calculation, if the amount of carbon dioxide in the air were to double, global temperatures would rise between three and four degrees Celsius – pretty close to the 2.5 to four-degree increase predicted by the vastly more advanced climate models of today.
Kolbert writes: “Arrhenius thought that the future he had conjured would be delightful. ‘Our descendants,’ he predicted, would live happier lives ‘under a warmer sky’…It’s easy now to poke fun at Arrhenius for his sunniness. The doubling threshold could be reached within decades, and the results are apt to be disastrous.
"But who among us is any different? Here we all are, watching things fall apart. And yet, deep down, we don’t believe it.
Here we all are, watching things fall apart. And yet, deep down, we don’t believe it.
The human brain – by means of a mechanism called denial – is good at protecting itself from realities that are uncomfortable or induce anxiety. The human body, however, is less well-equipped to defend itself from the reality of a hotter future; a reality which will come with diverse, far-reaching and unpleasant effects on our health.
And if the human body is not ready for the future, the health system will need to be.
While it's still too early to precisely predict the details of health impacts stemming from climate change, it's safe to assume that the public and private healthcare sectors will be bombarded with an influx of patients affected by acute and chronic climate-change events.
And if the human body is not ready for the future, the health system will need to be.
The maladies that we can expect to see changes in, as identified by scientists, researchers and medical professionals, include:
The heat stress and dehydration caused by higher temperatures will have serious implications for the productivity of workers in the agriculture and mining sectors.
Healthcare providers have their work cut out for them in terms of pricing and providing for the expected increase in needs of their clients, members and patients. Some researchers have, however, suggested that climate change could and should serve as a catalyst for improving the healthcare system overall. forcing innovation, efficiency and proactivity if the system is to survive – cold comfort, perhaps, in an increasingly hotter world.