专家警告称气候变化将成21世纪最大健康威胁
Climate change is already harming millions of people around the world and will become the biggest health threat of the 21st century, experts have warned.
有关专家日前警告称,气候变化已对全球数百万人口构成伤害,并将成为21世纪最大的健康威胁。Heatwaves are becoming more frequent as global temperatures rise, disease-carrying mosquitoes are increasing their range and crops are failing as the world warms up, according to a major report in the Lancet medical journal.
据医学期刊《柳叶刀》发表的一篇重要报告称,随着全球变暖,热浪会更加频繁,而气温上升,也会使携带疾病的蚊子活动范围扩大,农作物歉收。The 50-page report, written by 26 organisations including University College London and the Royal College of Physicians, chronicles the impact of environment patterns on human health.
这份50页的报告由包括英国伦敦大学学院和英国皇家内科医学会在内的26个组织撰写而成,报告里记录了环境对人类健康的影响。
For Britain, climate change is not yet having a big impact – even though heatwaves are linked to the deaths of up to 3,000 people a year.
对英国来说,气候变化尚未产生重大影响--尽管每年因热浪死亡的人数达到了3000人。But for the rest of the world climate change is already having a big effect on human health, the researchers said.
研究人员表示,但对于全球其他国家来说,气候变化已对人类健康产生了重大影响。The world has seen a 46 per cent global increase in weather-related disasters since 2000, they calculated. Heatwaves are a particular problem, hitting an additional 125 million elderly people in the past 16 years as they increased in frequency.
他们估算出,自2000年以来,全球范围内与天气有关的灾害增加了46%。热浪问题尤为严重,过去16年,随着热浪变得日益频繁,有1.25亿老年人受到影响。Transmission of dengue fever has increased 10 per cent since the 1950s, as mosquitoes have been able to increase their range due to warming temperatures.
自上世纪50年代以来,登革热的传播率增加了10%,这是因为由于气温上升,蚊子的活动范围变大。Professor Hugh Montgomery, of University College London, said: 'This is the major health threat of the 21st century. We are only just beginning to feel the impacts of climate change.'
伦敦大学学院的休·蒙哥马利教授说:“这是21世纪的主要健康威胁。我们才刚刚开始感受到气候变化的影响。”