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Global warming could threaten human health profoundly. Computer models indicate that several diseases will rise rapidly as the atmosphere heats. Recent studies indicate that tropical diseases such as malaria and dengue may spread as the temperatures rise. Irregular and unusual storm and rainfall patterns could create severe ecological upsets, threatening everything from crop failure to cholera.

Climatologists agree that the atmosphere is heating, but they don't know how high the temperatures will rise or how fast. The rate of global warming is growing and the effects could become more and more disruptive. Computers disturbingly indicate that global warming, along with the other climate changes it produces, will increase many serious medical disorders.

Global warming can influence health in many ways. The most immediate will be stronger heat waves and a lack of nighttime cooling. The atmosphere is warming unsymmetrically, showing the greatest rises at night. The number of deaths in some areas is predicted to double by 2020.

Some of the projected theories are that the oceans will heat up, and glaciers will melt, raising sea levels; weather patterns will turn erratic and storms will be more severe. Rapid shifts in the weather increase the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts. These disasters cause death by drowning or starvation, and spread of infectious disease.

This is frightening, because infectious illnesses are extremely difficult to eradicate. Containment is the primary concern. With our modern day, international commerce and travel, an infectious disease that appears in one part of the world can rapidly spread to other continents.

Floods and droughts caused by global warming can damage crops, making them susceptible to infection and infestations, threatening food supplies. The greatest health threat from global warming is the diseases carried by mosquitoes such as yellow fever, malaria, dengue fever and encephalitis.

As global warming increases, mosquitoes could spread out into other territories. Also, warmer nighttime and winter temperatures could allow mosquitoes to spread diseases for longer periods. Higher temperatures are not the only factor in the threat of disease-carrying mosquitoes. Floods and droughts can induce outbreaks by providing breeding grounds.

Dengue and malaria are two of the diseases most likely to spread dramatically by mosquitoes as global warming increases. Currently, malaria kills three thousand people every day. This is alarming,

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