Climate change is incubating pandemics

Global heating has so profoundly altered our planet that some experts argue it's no longer about a changing climate and instead about a changed climate. In other words, the hotter, more chaotic world predicted by climate scientists is part of our present, not just our future. And those changes extend beyond rising sea levels and heat waves to how diseases spread and impact society.

For example, climate change is a breeding ground for intensified cholera outbreaks — one of only many diseases that could become full-fledged pandemics as humans continue to overheat the planet by burning fossil fuels.

Cholera patients experience many symptoms, ranging from unpleasant to deadly. Once a mosquito bite transmits a dangerous Vibrio cholerae strain like O1 and O139 to a human, that person will experience painful leg cramps, insatiable thirst and constant nausea punctuated by vomiting. An infected individual usually feels restless and spends a lot of time defecating watery diarrhea. Even healthy adults will die within a few hours if they do not get the correct treatment, with hundreds of thousands suffering that fate every year.