Climate Change has already begun to affect our health. If you read the newspaper, you will have seen several articles on this topic during the hot summer months.

What are the effects to our health?

First, lets take a look at the direct effects. These are the problems that we will begin to face just by going outside on a record hot or cold day:

• Increased breathing difficulty due to thermal stress and increased air pollution...especially for those who have respiratory illnesses.
• Increased risk of heart attacks and strokes due to thermal stress.
• Greater risk of skin cancer due to increased UV ray exposure.

Then, there are indirect health effects of Climate Change. Lets take a look at what we could be in for if Climate Change gets out of hand:

• An increase in "Vector-borne" diseases...that is, diseases that are spread by living creatures such as malaria which is spread by mosquitoes.
• "Water-borne" diseases will also increase due to rising temperatures. An example is Cholera
• Climate Change seems to be increasing the occurrence of severe weather events. Tragedy-related deaths are,therefore, another indirect health effect of Climate Change.
• Rising sea levels might mean a water-front property for all of us. While this sounds like fun, it will be a tragedy for many. Remember the Manitoba floods??! Think about islands - they could be like Atlantis and disappear.

	Pollutants have been proven to: damage lung tissue increase hospitalization due to bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma increase chest pain and breathing function starve the body of oxygen due to CO concentration increase
	The hole in the ozone layer allows more UV rays through to the earth causing increases in the incidence of skin cancer. It is not just human health that is affected by Ozone layer depletion. Plants and other animals will also be harmed by the loss!
	The Greenhouse Effect is primarily responsible for warming the Earth’s temperature. This warming will cause a number of people with heart or respiratory illness to find simple tasks much more difficult. Think about what it feels like to run a long way on a hot humid day or what it would be like to swim in a hot tub. Imagine if walking to the fridge from the couch was that hard?? To some, it is!!