Study: Curbing global warming saves lives

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

WASHINGTON – Cutting global warming pollution would not only make the planet healthier, it would make people healthier, too, new research suggests.

Slashing carbon dioxide emissions could save millions of lives, mostly by reducing preventable deaths from heart and lung diseases, according to studies released Wednesday and published in a special issue of The Lancet British medical journal.

Global and U.S. health officials unveiled the results as they pushed for health issues to take a more prominent role at upcoming climate change negotiations in Copenhagen. Also on Wednesday, President Obama announced that he would go to Copenhagen at the start of international climate talks. U.S. health officials said the timing was not planned.

“Relying on fossil fuels leads to unhealthy lifestyles, increasing our chances for getting sick and in some cases takes years from our lives,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a telecast briefing from her home state of Kansas. “As greenhouse gas emissions go down, so do deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. This is not a small effect.”

Sebelius, British health officials, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the head of the World Health Organization all took part in briefings based in Washington and London.

The journal Lancet took an advocacyrole in commissioning the studies and timing their release before the Copenhagen summit, but the science was not affected by the intent, journal editor Dr. Richard Horton said.