Interview with Dr. Jonathan Patz - physician & expert on health impacts of climate change. Already deadly, & not just in the developing world. Plus opening speech for UNESCO 2010 Year of Biodiversity, by the man who invented it, Dr. Thomas Lovejoy. A powerful not-to-be-missed message.
http://www.ecoshock.org Lovejoy speech recorded by Stephen Leahy of stephenleahy.net No copyright music.
RADIO STATIONS: If you need time for Station ID, see two 29 minute segments posted below. No copyright music.
In this program, you'll hear two of the world's top authorities explain how this will impact our health, and the survival of the species.
I interview Dr. Jonathan Patz, a physician and lead author for the IPCC, on health and climate change. He is now advising emergency doctors and disaster agencies on what to expect as climate disruption proceeds.
Sure, we talk about the spread of malaria. But Patz also explains the impacts of climate change are already affecting public health in developed countries, including the United States. Just one example: remember all those extreme rain events in the last year, with flooding and records set? Patz says 700 American towns and cities still have interlocking sewage and storm drains. When they get overloaded disease spreads.
Then Dr. Patz goes into the deaths and disease from simple air pollution - which gets magnified in hotter, wetter times. Climate change can raise the number of smog alerts, not only from chemical reactions, but also because air systems are expected to experience longer periods of stagnation. The patterns of mixing in the atmosphere change as the planet warms.
Then, we'll go straight to Paris, for a speech by Thomas Lovejoy, the inventor of the term "biological diversity." His speech, recorded January 25th, 2010 opened a United Nations conference to celebrate this year of biodiversity. But Lovejoy warns we are entering the sixth great extinction. Don't miss this powerful overview on climate change and the species, in our second half hour.