EcoHealth doi:10.1007/s10393-007-0141-1 (2007)

The health burden of climate change will be greatest among those who have contributed least to the problem, finds a study that quantifies the growing ethical crises of global warming.

Led by environmental public-health researcher Jonathan Patz of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the study compared per capita carbon dioxide emissions with the regional distribution of four climate-sensitive health effects: malaria, malnutrition, diarrhoea and inland flood-related fatalities. Overall, the researchers found a striking disparity between countries with the highest emissions and those with the highest disease burden. For example, per capita CO2 emissions of the US are six times greater than the average among nations, yet the US also has a significantly lower disease burden than developing nations, some of which have per capita emissions 30-fold less than those of the US.

Notably, the study highlights that 88% of the disease burden attributable to climate change affects children less than five years old, who are a 'non-consenting' part of the population. The inequity of climate change further extends to some of the proposed solutions; the scientists caution that biofuels, for example, could worsen the health impacts of climate change by competing with food crops for land and rainforests for biodiversity conservation in developing nations.