The study adds that global warming will directly kill hundreds of Americans from exposure to extreme heat during summer months. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that extreme heat is currently responsible for an average of at least 240 deaths a year in the United States. More than 600 people died of heat exposure in Chicago alone during the summer of 1995. As I write this, the death toll in the United States from our most recent heat wave is nearing 200 people, with Chicago again suffering more deaths than any other city. The elderly and very young again have done most of the suffering.
Respiratory illness is only part of the picture.
The Sierra Club study says that the effects of the recent El Ni o provide an indication of how sensitive diseases can be to changes in climate. According to a recent Harvard University study, warming waters in the Pacific Ocean likely contributed to the severe outbreak of cholera that led to thousands of deaths in Latin American countries. Since 1981, the number of cases of dengue fever has risen significantly in South America and has begun to spread into the United States. We're seeing malaria in Houston, Texas. Italy had an outbreak of malaria in 1997, according to The Guardian, of London, England.