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Megan Rowling argues on the pages of Alertnet, that climate change is not only causing rising temperatures and more extreme weather, but serious impacts on human health as well.
A 2009 report from the now-defunct Global Humanitarian Forum (GHF) calculated that climate change already kills about 315,000 people a year through hunger, sickness and weather disasters, and the annual death toll is expected to rise to half a million by 2030 - but its methodology was widely questioned.
The good news is that a wide group of experts is now working on updating the WHO figures on climate-related health burdens, and is hoping to have the new numbers, examining an expanded range of impacts, ready in time for the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June.