Climate change is what the people at the Pentagon like to call a “threat multiplier.” Warming takes existing dangers like political instability in developing nations, and amplifies them in ways that can be hard to predict — but which are rarely positive. That goes for human health too.
5 Reasons Climate Change Is Bad for Your Health
Walter Bibikow/JAI/Corbis
Rising temperatures usually mean more photochemical smog of the sort that crowns cities like Los Angeles, stressing out the lungs of asthma sufferers. In 2008, Environmental Protection Agency researchers found that warming is likely to make smog worse in the Northeast, the lower Midwest and the mid-Atlantic regions of the country, though it might get slightly better in parts of Texas and California. Also, a warmer world will likely mean longer summers, stretching out the smog season.