Matters of Scale - Human Health and the Future
Number of people now living within the reach of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes (potential transmission zone), worldwide | 2.5 billion |
Number of people who will live in the transmission zone by the latter half of the 21st century, after projected expansion of the transmission zone by global warming | 4.8 billion |
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Average number of heat-related deaths in Atlanta each summer | 78 |
Average number projected by 2050, assuming no change in the city's population size or age profile, but with projected global warming | 293 |
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Predicted decline in production of cereal grains (rice, corn, wheat, etc.) as a result of climate change (climate effects only) by 2060, | |
in the developed countries | - 26.9 percent |
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Additional decline in grain production from physiological effects of CO2, | |
in developed countries | - 3.6 percent |
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Number of people at risk of hunger in 2060, without global warming | 640 million |
Number at risk with projected warming | 680 to 940 million |
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Life expectancy in the most developed countries in 2000 | 79 |
Life expectancy in the least developed countries in 2000 | 42 |
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Share of worldwide AIDS/HIV cases that are in developing countries | 90 percent |
Share of AIDS stories with non-U.S. settings in the U.S. media | 4 percent |
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Sources: Climate change effects: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Second Assessment Report, 1995. Grain production decline is from a global climate change model of the United Kingdom Meteorological Office. Life expectancy: World Health Organization, World Health Report 1995. AIDS cases: UNAIDS, The HIV/AIDS Situation in Mid 1996, July 1, 1996. AIDS in the U.S. media: Covering the Epidemic: AIDS in the News Media, 1985-1996, Henry J. Kaiser Foundation Survey, June 16, 1996.