Climate Change and Its Impact on Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Climate Change and Its Impact on Health - Essay Example Solar radiation powers the climate system. Here we are trying to explain the factors, which are affecting our climate change, and how the human activities are affecting the climate mostly in negative way. Further we will try to understand how the global warming the most visible aspect of climate change affects our whole climate system including humans worldwide. Finally we will discuss the ill effects of these climatic changes on human health as a whole. Apart from environmental perspective we would discuss this phenomenon on the basis of social and economical development and how we can manage these changes effectively and equitably. Key-words: Global warming, Current Situation Analysis (CSA), Qualitative Research Methodology (QRM), Focus Group Discussions, In Depth Interviews, Key Informant Interview, questionnaire, Free Listing, Green House Gases, Emissions. Introduction: There can be no clearer illustration of the need for human beings to act globally than the issues raised by the impact of human activity on our atmosphere. That we all share the same planet came to our attention in a particularly pressing way in the 1970's when scientists discovered that the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's) threatens the ozone layer shielding the surface of our planet from the full force of the Sun 's ultraviolet radiation. Damage to that protective shield would cause cancer rates to rise sharply and could have other effects, for example, on the growth of algae. Getting rid of CFC's has turned out to be just the curtain raiser; the main event is climate change, or global warming. Climate change is a very different matter. The scientific evidence that human activities are changing the climate of our planet has been studied by a working group of the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC), an international scientific body intended to provide p olicymakers with an authoritative view of climate change and its causes. The Third IPCC report (2001) finds that our planet has shown clear signs of warming over the past century. The 1990's were the hottest decade, and 1998 the hottest year, recorded year the 140 years for which meteorological records have been kept. In fact, nine of the hottest years during this period have occurred since 1990, and temperatures are now rising at three times the rate of early 1900's ("This year was the 2nd Hottest, confirming a Trend, UN says", New York times, 19 December 2001,). Sea levels have risen by between 10 to 20 centimeters over the past century. Since 1960's snow and ice cover has decreased by about 10% Ad Mountain glaciers are in retreat everywhere except near the poles. Now due to climate change, lots of poor nations and their populations will face drastic situations. In 1991, a cyclone hit the coast of Bangladesh, coinciding with high tides that left 10 million people hopeless and kill ed 1, 39,000. Most of these people were living on mudflats in the deltas. As many as 70 million people could be affected in Bangladesh, and a similar number in china.