You most likely have heard that global warming is leading to rising sea levels, dwindling food supplies, and an unpredictable weather. However, if that doesn’t make you budge or care, maybe this will: It could actually be making you sick.

I read about the Consortium on Climate & Health, which includes a group pf physicians whose aim is to raise awareness of the health effects of climate change. A report by the group lists numerous health complications that can result from global warming: rising temperatures can lead to heat stroke, dehydration, and the worsening of chronic diseases; extreme weather can cause injuries and death; pollution can exacerbate asthma, lung disease, and allergies; increases in weather can help insect-borne diseases spread; contaminated food and water can make us sick; and natural disasters can trigger mental health issues.

To break it down even more, there are three types of harms that can arise from this climate change:

• Direct harms, such as injuries and deaths due to increasingly violent weather; asthma and other lung diseases exacerbated by extremely hot weather and wildfires; and longer allergy seasons 
• Increased spread of disease through insects that carry infections like Lyme disease or Zika virus, and through contaminated food and water
• The effects on mental health resulting from the damage climate change can do to society, such as increasing depression and anxiety.

Scientists have warned for years of the potential impacts of climate change on human health. The federal National Climate Assessment released a stetament in 2014 which said: "Climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways, including impacts from increased extreme weather events, wildfire, decreased air quality, and illnesses transmitted by food, water and diseases carriers such as mosquitoes and ticks."

And the World Health Organization estimated climate change will be responsible for about 240,000 deaths per year by 2030.

So as you can see, the need to go paperless with companies like Signtech in order to reduce our carbon footprint, and the need to make intentional steps to counter the harmful effects of global warming is very pressing. It doesn’t only affect this planetary body we inhabit, it affects our own bodies as well.

To quote Mona Sarfaty, a physician, “Global warming is not only happening in the Arctic Circle, it’s happening here. It’s not only a problem for us in 2100, it’s a problem now. And it’s not only hurting polar bears, it’s hurting us."

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