Although the threats from the effects of global warming are worldwide, people living in developing nations are more vulnerable because they have fewer resources to deal with the changes, officials say.
The Philippines is an example of that because warmer weather and more rainfall allows malaria-carrying mosquitoes to breed at more rapidly, significantly increasing their numbers.
Those conditions also increase the incidences of malaria, diarrhea and malnutrition, with those illnesses and floods killing an estimated 150,000 people every year, with half those deaths in Asia, regional WHO Director Shigeru Omi told reporters in Manila on Monday, according to reports by the Agency France Presse and the Associated Press.
On its website, WHO warns that health impacts from "climate change will be difficult to reverse in a few years or decades. Yet, many of these possible impacts can be avoided or controlled."
Omi told reporters that too much or too little rain can have an impact on food production, which can cause unemployment, economic upheavals and political unrest, the AP reports.
According to AFP, Omi said that WHO will spend $10 million studying the effects of climate change on health and how to deal with those changes.
Ironically, at a time when many people in Asia are turning from bicycles to automobiles, WHO on its website is calling on people in developed nations to use their automobiles less and use bicycles more to cut greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.
