Quotes Database

«[March 2002 Rising carbon dioxide levels associated with global warming could lead to an increase in the incidence of allergies to ragweed and other plants by mid-century, according to a report appearing in the March Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology by Harvard University researchers. The study found that ragweed grown in an atmosphere with double the current carbon dioxide levels produced 61 percent more pollen than normal. Such a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide is expected to occur between 2050 and 2100.] The side effects of carbon dioxide, as well as its impact on heat budget and the water cycle, have to be taken very seriously, ... I believe this study can help us understand the true costs of burning fossil fuels.»

«Clearly, the extreme events that we're now experiencing in California and Florida, and in Georgia and Alabama, and the ice storms in Maine and New Hampshire, are going to have an impact on our understanding that our climate system is becoming unstable.»

«We are looking at an emergence of new diseases and a resurgence of old diseases, and redistribution of old diseases on a global scale.»

«Warmer winters and nights are altering the distribution of mosquito-borne diseases, while extreme weather events such as floods and droughts are spawning large»

«That prospect is deeply troubling, because infectious illness is a genie that can be very hard to put back into its bottle. It may kill fewer people in one fell swoop than a raging flood or an extended drought, but once it takes root in a community, it often defies eradication and can invade other areas.»

«In these days of international commerce and travel, an infectious disorder that appears in one part of the world can quickly become a problem continents away if the disease-causing agent, or pathogen, finds itself in a hospitable environment.»

«Further, the lack of clean water during a drought interferes with good hygiene and safe rehydration of those who have lost large amounts of water because of diarrhea or fever.»

«I worry that effective corrective measures will not be instituted soon enough. Climate does not necessarily change gradually. The multiple factors that are now destabilizing the global climate system could cause it to jump abruptly out of its current state. At any time, the world could suddenly become much hotter or even much colder. Such a sudden, catastrophic change is the ultimate health risk-one that must be avoided at all costs.»

«Colonizers escaped (to mountainous areas) to avoid the swamps that bred malaria. Those areas are no longer safe,»

«We found that impacts of climate change are likely to lead to ramifications that overlap in several areas including our health, our economy and the natural systems on which we depend.»