专家警告称气候变化将成21世纪最大健康威胁

Climate change is already harming millions of people around the world and will become the biggest health threat of the 21st century, experts have warned.

有关专家日前警告称，气候变化已对全球数百万人口构成伤害，并将成为21世纪最大的健康威胁。

Heatwaves are becoming more frequent as global temperatures rise, disease-carrying mosquitoes are increasing their range and crops are failing as the world warms up, according to a major report in the Lancet medical journal.

据医学期刊《柳叶刀》发表的一篇重要报告称，随着全球变暖，热浪会更加频繁，而气温上升，也会使携带疾病的蚊子活动范围扩大，农作物歉收。

The 50-page report, written by 26 organisations including University College London and the Royal College of Physicians, chronicles the impact of environment patterns on human health.

这份50页的报告由包括英国伦敦大学学院和英国皇家内科医学会在内的26个组织撰写而成，报告里记录了环境对人类健康的影响。

For Britain, climate change is not yet having a big impact – even though heatwaves are linked to the deaths of up to 3,000 people a year.

对英国来说，气候变化尚未产生重大影响--尽管每年因热浪死亡的人数达到了3000人。

But for the rest of the world climate change is already having a big effect on human health, the researchers said.

研究人员表示，但对于全球其他国家来说，气候变化已对人类健康产生了重大影响。

The world has seen a 46 per cent global increase in weather-related disasters since 2000, they calculated. Heatwaves are a particular problem, hitting an additional 125 million elderly people in the past 16 years as they increased in frequency.

他们估算出，自2000年以来，全球范围内与天气有关的灾害增加了46%。热浪问题尤为严重，过去16年，随着热浪变得日益频繁，有1.25亿老年人受到影响。

Transmission of dengue fever has increased 10 per cent since the 1950s, as mosquitoes have been able to increase their range due to warming temperatures.

自上世纪50年代以来，登革热的传播率增加了10%，这是因为由于气温上升，蚊子的活动范围变大。

Professor Hugh Montgomery, of University College London, said: 'This is the major health threat of the 21st century. We are only just beginning to feel the impacts of climate change.'

伦敦大学学院的休·蒙哥马利教授说：“这是21世纪的主要健康威胁。我们才刚刚开始感受到气候变化的影响。”