For example, the secondary consequences of heat waves, droughts, and storms. At the height of the flood, according to USGS, the river was carrying 12,000 pounds of atrazine per day past Thebes, Illinois, where the agency took measurements. Atrazine is an herbicide that interferes with the endocrine system in wildlife and humans. Unusual weather brings many unexpected side effects. The combination of drought, high temperatures, and mice loosened the soils over a large area, allowing winds to strip off 20 to 30 million tons of valuable topsoil and move it out to sea.
Drought affects human health as well.
In New Zealand, as a long drought worsened in 1994, authorities made preparations for managing epidemics of hepatitis A, diarrhea, and cholera. The IPCC in 1994 estimated that global warming is likely to have its severest impacts on humans by diminishing agricultural output and making food scarce. Shifting climatic zones northward will increase the arid zones and thus diminish the land available for crops. Rising seas will cover much good farmland, further reducing available croplands. In industrialized nations, the greatest impacts of climate change probably will be experienced through heat waves.