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气候变化将对健康产生重大危害：专家疾呼行动
气候变化将对健康产生重大危害：专家疾呼行动起来防止伤亡。
Posted 04/13/2007
Kim Krisberg
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With the world's top scientists declaring human behavior at the root of global warming and new warnings that work must begin now to prevent its catastrophic effects, climate change has firmly cemented its place on the international stage.
随着全球顶级科学家宣布人类活动已经从根本上导致了全球变暖，并接着警告必须马上行动起来阻止灾难的发生，气候变化问题已经稳稳地占据了国际舞台。
The complex causes of climate change and the domino effects of rising global temperatures are predicted to have direct consequences on people's health and lives. The effects could range from the deadly–such as hurricanes and heatwaves–to the less serious–such as when warmer air and higher concentrations of carbon dioxide spur increased ragweed pollen production. The good news, though, is that people can help mitigate the effects of global warming by changing how they interact with their environments, and public health workers will be key in driving that message home.
气候变化的复杂原因和全球变暖的多米诺骨牌效应将对人们的健康和生命造成直接的后果。从致命的飓风和热浪到稍微轻一点的气温变暖和二氧化碳气体浓度增高刺激豚草花粉的产生，这种影响相当广泛。不过好消息是，人们可以通过和环境的关系来减轻全球变暖的影响，而公共卫生人员将成为把这些信息传递到千家万户的主力军。
"We in public health need to focus on climate change, learn more about the health implications of climate change, do the research that needs to be done and do the preparedness that's needed to protect the public," said Howard Frumkin, MD, DrPH, director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This ought to become a very important priority for public health."
“我们这些搞公共卫生的要集中精力在气候变化上，更多了解气候变化对健康的影响，做些必要的研究和保护公众的准备工作，”疾病控制和预防中心全国环境健康中心主管Howard Frumkin医学哲学博士说，“这将成为公共卫生的重中之重。”
Armed with clear and compelling science, public health is just one of the many sectors with a role to play. In February, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fourth assessment report, finding it very likely that "global increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change" and that global warming is "unequivocal." A few weeks after the panel's report, the United Nations Foundation released a "roadmap" for mitigating and adapting to climate change, calling on world policy-makers to immediately act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions–a cause of global warming–by improving vehicle efficiency and building design and investing in cleaner energy. The road-map also calls on communities to improve preparedness efforts to "adapt to ongoing and unavoidable changes in the Earth's climate system," drawing specific attention to the poorest and most vulnerable nations, which are the least offending nations in terms of emissions but whose populations could bear the brunt of global warming.
有清晰而令人信服的科学作为武器的公共卫生，只是发挥作用的诸多领域中的一个。在2月份，美国政府间气候变化小组发布了第四个评估报告，发现“全球二氧化碳浓度增加主要是由于石油的使用和土地使用的变化”，全球气候变暖是“毫无争议”的。报告发布几周后，美国基金会推出了减轻和适应气候变化的“路线图”，呼吁全球的政策制定者改进汽车能效、建筑设计以及加大对清洁能源的投入，尽快行动以减少导致气候变暖的温室气体的排放。该路线图还号召社区加大预防力度，“应对地球气候系统的已经开始且无法逆转的变化，”要特别关注贫困和最脆弱的国家，这些国家没有太多的排放但当地的人们同样会受到全球变暖的冲击。
CDC is now bringing together experts to help the agency chart its course on climate change, Frumkin said, and CDC Director Julie Gerberding, MD, MPH, has committed to making climate change an agency priority. Fortunately, many conventional public health activities can be used to help mitigate and study global warming, and the recommendations proposed to fight global warming will also address priority public health problems, such as obesity and low physical activity rates, Frumkin told The Nation's Health. Specifically, public health work to create healthier built environments–which encompasses all of the man-made structures that constitute a person's living space, from housing developments to parks to roads–targets the same behaviors and lifestyles that contribute to global warming.
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2010-10-27 17:11
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