What are the most serious health impacts from global warming facing Oregon?
Two of the most pressing issues are heat waves and forest fires. Most people don’t seem to appreciate how deadly heat waves can be. In 2003 a serious heat wave in Europe was estimated to have killed over 70,000 people. That’s a lot of people. It turns out we know quite a bit about preventing these kinds of deaths. We know that the people most at risk have health conditions such as heart or lung disease, so a little heat stress can put them over the edge. We also know that people who are socially isolated tend to be the ones who get hit hardest. Those two factors together mean that the elderly are often at risk. Ultimately, we know that getting people into cool environments and getting information out are simple things we can do to prevent the quantity of widespread deaths we saw in Europe. Not only is our overall population aging, but the Northwest can be expected to have a comparatively larger increase in elderly population in the coming years. That’s right. This is going to be more a
