LONDON - A weak response to climate change could be catastrophic
for international health, leading doctors said in two British
medical journals Wednesday. Experts have previously warned that
global warming could mean a spike in diseases including malaria
and dengue fever, and that higher temperatures would result in
food shortages, sanitation problems and extreme weather events
like hurricanes and floods. In a letter jointly published in The
Lancet and BMJ, presidents from 18 medical organizations
worldwide called on doctors to pressure politicians meeting in
Copenhagen in December to take decisive action on global
warming. "There is a real danger that politicians will be
indecisive," wrote the doctors, who included the presidents of
the American College of Physicians, Hong Kong's Academy of
Medicine and Britain's Royal College of Physicians. "We call on
doctors to demand that their politicians listen to the clear
facts that have been identified in relation to climate change
and act now." In an accompanying e