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You may think global warming is someone else's problem, but the health impacts affect everyone, even college students.
Any day now, the sunbathers will start skipping classes and start to appear on Southwest Beach or by the campus pond.
But skipping class is beside the point; the real issue here goes even deeper than your newly bronzed tone after missing those classes to bake in the sun. You may be risking your future health and increasing your susceptibility to dangerous diseases like skin cancer, asthma and West Nile Virus.
What's the reason?
Global warming.
According to a release by the National Climate Data Center in 2005, nine of the top 10 warmest years on the planet have occurred since 1995, while studies have also shown that the high average temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere during those same years were record breaking in comparison to the past 2,000 years.
"The things that affect us are sort of in balance with the environment and we're throwing it out of balance," said Environmental Health Sciences professor Dr. Christine Rogers of the University of Massachusetts.
Rogers said that environmental changes in the past 100 years have caused the global temperature to rise .6 degrees and is projected to go up at least two more degrees over the next century. That's more than three times the rate calculated over the past 100 years.
Just last year, the surface temperature of the United States between January and June had reached its warmest since 1895.
All that talk of warmer temperatures can sound appealing especially after a brutal New England winter. But such changes in weather patterns can pose a significant threat to our health as we get older.
Skin cancer - 1 million diagnosed annually - can result from too much exposure to harmful ultraviolet-B rays. With a depleting ozone layer as a result of the release of carbon dioxide emissions, we face greater exposure to those dangerous UV-B rays when we're outside, particularly between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, one in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime, so you might want to rethink cutting those classes.
The warming of the atmosphere also accelerates plant growth, which creates higher levels of pollen in the air and increases the numbers of allergens that lead to respiratory diseases like asthma, said Rogers, who studies and assesses airborne microbial exposure.
Increased exposure to sunlight and warmer temperatures can also lead to heat stroke.
Remember the summer of 2003?
A heat wave swept through Europe and killed an estimated 35,000 people. Temperatures stayed about 100 degrees throughout most of August through a continent unaccustomed to sweltering conditions.
Just north, the Arctic polar ice cap is diminishing and its permanent ice cover has decreased nine percent each decade, according to the National Resources Defense Council. If the trends continue, the NRDC predicts the Arctic could become iceless by the end of the century. Sea levels have risen as a result.
Infectious diseases like West Nile Virus have also risen due to the increased sea levels, causing disease-carrying mosquitoes to multiply and move to expanding warmer climates in higher elevations in order to thrive.
Warmer environments boost mosquitoes' reproduction rates and blood meals while prolonging their breeding season, according to the New England Journal of Medicine, written by Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School on Oct. 6, 2005. This makes us more susceptible to diseases like the West Nile Virus that can cause inflammation in the brain and spinal cord, and ultimately lead to death.
This all sounds like scary stuff. So what can we do as college students?
On a small scale, Rogers recommended walking instead of driving on campus, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. If walking is too much to ask, use public transportation more often, or swallow that pride and ride a bike.
Avoid increased exposure to sunlight. The Skin Cancer Foundation states more than ninety percent of all skin cancers are caused by sun exposure. So stay cool in the shade or lather up with sunscreen.
Students can also get involved politically by lobbying the government, Rogers suggested.
"Get them to take you seriously," she said. "I think that students shouldn't sit back and say, 'someone else is going to take care of it.' Everyone needs to be engaged. Our reality in 50 years is going to be vastly different, that's not a long time."
"It's a call to action for everyone to get involved," she emphasized.
Chanel Figueredo can be reached at cfiguere@student.umass.edu.
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