The Global Warming Debate
When I started working for ADVANCE, one of my first story assignments was to write about global warming and its effect on deforestation and parasitology. I was excited for this assignment because the topic had always interested me and I wanted to learn more.
Besides learning how certain diseases such as malaria could make appearances in the U.S. as a result of the phenomenon, I also realized through writing this article how people are divided on this issue. After telling friends and family about what I was working on, some of them enthusiastically said how more people need to learn about the consequences of what we are doing to our environment, while others told me it's just a big hoax concocted by our government.
I was even more surprised to see how split laboratorians are on the issue. In an ADVANCE Opinion Poll asking, "Do you think global warming will impact the clinical lab profession?," 44 percent of respondents said laboratorians will see increased incidence of disease, while another 44 percent said we will not see any changes and global warming is overrated. Thirteen percent said global warming might impact healthcare in some way.
For those of you who think global warming is overrated, what leads you to believe that? And for people who think we will see more infectious diseases as a result of global warming, what facts do you rely on to back up your opinion?