EPA- the Grim Reaper?

The EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, has been and still is trying to determine whether greenhouse gases (GHG) present dangers to people's health. If it decides that GHGs do present the population with health risks, then it will have to set up regulations to decrease them.

Stop stalling EPA!

I'm not getting what the EPA has yet to determine because it seems fairly obvious that global warming and GHGs negatively affect people's health. The EPA just stated in July 2008 that because global warming will increase periods of extreme heat, those periods will then lead to an increase in deaths primarily concentrated in the elderly, poor and inner city populations. The EPA also pointed out that "In July 1995, a heat wave killed more than 700 people in the Chicago area alone."

U.S. and Malaria
Courtesy of Center for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov)

Furthermore, parasitic-caused diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, have increased and will continue to do so because mosquitoes are able to inhabit higher altitudes that because of global warming, have increased in temperature. Salmonellosis and other food-borne infections will also skyrocket because these peak in warmer months.

Not evidence enough for the EPA?

Well, scientists are studying the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in four cities: New York, Mexico City, San Paolo and Santiago. And they have estimated that by significantly decreasing fossil fuel emissions (CO2), which would thereby decrease other copollutants by 10%, those four cities could "avoid some 64,000 premature deaths (including infant deaths) and 65,000 chronic bronchitis cases." (www.Sciencemag.com)

Fossil Fuel Emissions
Courtesy of Britannica (www.britannica.com)

These are the direct health complications due to GHG and global warming. The indirect consequences are infinite because with an increase in extreme and erratic weather conditions, there will be an increase of destruction and thereby an increase in poverty, starvation and unsanitary living conditions.

So, if the EPA wants to take its time on imposing regulations on GHGs, then it is also needs to realize that it is one of the agents that will cause the potential deaths of millions of individuals.

Even the EPA can't get through all the smog.
Courtesy of www.whokilledbambi.co.uk

Tell the EPA to Stand-the-Eff-up!