00:00Today we'll focus on global warming's impact on heart disease, and then we'll look at a plan to spray salt
00:06into the sky to potentially slow climate change.
00:10Brett, our first story is from ABC News, and it focuses on a new study in the American Journal of
00:14Preventive Medicine that looks at heart disease and how climate change is impacting that.
00:19Yeah, with climate change we're seeing an increase in heat waves, cold snaps, which is surprising, but yes we are
00:24seeing cold snaps in certain parts of the region.
00:26Heavy rain events as well, so what they broke this down into is the risks from heat above 100 degrees,
00:34for every day above 100 degrees we're seeing a 3% increase in these risks, about a 1% increase
00:40with temperatures dropping to 14 degrees or less, and for every day above 2 inches of rain we're seeing an
00:46increased risk of 2%.
00:48Doesn't sound like much, but it adds up.
00:50It definitely adds up, especially across the world, and that translates to number of people that could be potentially impacted
00:56by cardiovascular disease throughout their lifetimes.
00:58It's a cumulative effect, not just one day of a heat wave necessarily causing some issue, it's that repeated exposure
01:04over time.
01:06What groups are at greatest risk?
01:07Yeah, younger than retirement age, I'm surprised about that one, but smokers make sense, high BMI, also people who live
01:15in high ozone areas and rural areas, which is interesting.
01:19Certainly some areas of further study needed here as well to understand this full exposure.
01:23It's been pretty well documented that health and climate change is a pretty direct link there.
01:27This study also found that about 20 million people annually die from cardiovascular disease, and they estimate that about 4
01:35million of those, 20 million, are due to environmental factors such as these.
01:39Exactly, and what can we do to prevent this, or at least reduce that risk?
01:43Stay hydrated, that's a big one of course, certainly with the heat.
01:45Avoid unnecessary exertion if you're outdoors, and if you're indoors, well, try to keep a stable temperature.
01:51Certainly some good tips there. This will then lead us to our second story, which is the Daily Mail, and
01:58it focuses on a controversial plan to sprinkle or spray salt mist into the sky that could slow down global
02:05warming.
02:05Yeah, and we're talking about salt, which is not a good thing for heart disease, of course, but salt in
02:09the sky actually can help out with climate change because when we put salt into the clouds, it actually creates
02:16more reflectivity.
02:17And when we have more reflectivity, that's sending more of the sun's energy back into space, not heating the ground.
02:23So they've looked at this idea of spraying salt mist into the atmosphere.
02:26They need the droplet size to be right, and also talk a bit more about cloud brightening and how we
02:31see that already through natural occurrences on Earth.
02:34Yeah, with volcanoes, we've had many volcano eruptions, especially the big ones, have been known to put a lot of
02:40sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, which reflects more of the sun's heat.
02:44And we've seen significant cooling of the world's temperature for a year or two after these eruptions, so it does
02:52work.
02:52And they've got to find the right droplet size, too, to do this spraying.
02:55And there is some controversy around here as well with this. They're starting small scale. They may get bigger at
03:00some point.
03:00What's the controversy and challenge with geoengineering?
03:02Yeah, it's always a challenge with geoengineering. Again, the biggest concern is destructive weather patterns, perhaps enhancing those destructive weather
03:10patterns.
03:10Also having impact on tropical monsoons, which obviously can be fairly significant.
03:15But the alternative of doing nothing does not seem to be the right answer either, so certainly another area of
03:20further study.
03:21Thanks, Brett. For other information about climate, you can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:26And that's all.
03:26In the past, we have to go out to some Rabbinč±”.
03:26.
03:26You
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