Climate change: It's personal

It’s easy to think of climate change as something that is happening way out there, somewhere beyond the realm of our personal lives. Yes, the climate is changing, some ask, but how will it change my life -- how will it affect me?

The consequences of such change may be widespread and far-reaching, but they are also very personal and very present. Climate change impacts your health and your money, along with the health, economy and infrastructure of your city, your nation, and your world. Unless we act now and unless we act big, everyone/thing we know is at risk. Rather than think about climate change as something that impacts the "environment", let’s consider how it will affect you:

YOUR HEALTH

• Hot, Hot, Hot: You'll experience dehydration, heat stroke, and heart attacks as the number of extreme heat waves grow and intensify.
• Diseases: You'll suffer from worsening allergies, asthma, and perhaps even develop other respiratory conditions as concentrations of ground-level smog and ozone elevate (according to the IPCC's "Climate Change 2007" report -- pdf). You'll also be more susceptible to malaria, dengue fever, and Lyme disease, as conditions grow favorable for both mosquitoes and ticks. And you'll be more likely to suffer from diarrhea, given the increasing incidences of both salmonella and cholera.
• Hunger & Thirst: You will be hungrier and thirstier, suffer from malnutrition and consequent disorders, with possible implications for your child’s growth and development from decreased food and freshwater availability (IPCC report -- pdf).

YOUR MONEY

• Cost of Damages and Adaptation: You and your country will have to absorb skyrocketing costs associated with relocation, damage repair, and implementation of new infrastructure (IPCC report -- pdf). The average estimate for damages done by climate change is $600 billion/year.
• Tourist Industry: Your country will lose billions as climate change jeopardizes both summer and winter tourism (IPCC report -- pdf). You'll also lose popular vacation destinations, such as the Great Barrier Reef: A projected 3.6 degree temperature increase will wipe out 97% of the world’s coral reefs.
• Energy Costs: Your'll pay exorbitant energy prices (in fact, you already are!) as demand increases due to rising temperatures and supply plummets from a reduction in hydroelectric power caused by decreased steam, snowmelt runoff, and changes in precipitation .
• Productivity: You'll have access to fewer crops, as the length of the growing season shortens and crop productivity declines due to soil damage (IPCC report -- pdf). The National Research Council reports that abrupt climate change could cause $100 to $250 billion in damages to U.S. agriculture (NRC report -- pdf). Meat and dairy will become scarce, as rising temperatures impair livestock longevity and productivity (IPCC report -- pdf). So will wood, as droughts, fires, and windthrow devastate forests: For example, the South American tropical rainforest is slowly transmogrifying into a savannah (IPCC report -- pdf). Finally, you'll have less seafood, as rising temperatures and sea levels destroy mangrove forests, which are vital to sea life, and increasing acidity of the ocean decreases fisheries resources.
• Infrastructure: Get ready to pay for improvements on and repairs/construction of innumerable infrastructures -- such as housing, sewage systems, electricity plants, irrigation, dams, transportation systems, and water supplies -- as climate change renders current systems ineffective.

Depending on who you are -- where you live, the color of your skin, the size of your wallet -- vulnerability varies. Those affected most by climate change are often poor communities, people of color, developing countries, coastal residents, the very young, very old, and very sick; those who have it hardest, get hit the hardest:

• If you live on the coast, you are the most vulnerable to climate change and are at very high risk of experiencing flooding and coastal erosion.
• If you're poor or live in a developing country, you will have very limited adaptive capacities and many fewer resources to deal with all the disasters of climate change. You’ll definitely experience the most heat and water stress.
• If you live in a city, you’ll be warmer than most – cities are around 9° Fahrenheit warmer than surrounding areas. By 2030, most people – 61% of the world’s population – are expected to live in such heat traps.
• If you’re a person of color, especially African American or Latino, you will be disproportionately burdened by the health effects of climate change. You are more likely to be uninsured, exposed to higher levels of air pollution, and live in heat wave-prone areas. Your risk of developing respiratory and pulmonary illnesses will increase while your ability to seek proper care won't.
• If you’re old, young, or sick, your risk of dying from diarrhea will increase dramatically and you’ll be at highest risk of experiencing heat stress and dehydration.

Climate change is everyone’s problem -- from your best friend to your three-year old toddler to your 70-year old grandmother. I don’t know about you, but I am definitely not up for living under such substandard conditions – growing poorer, hungrier, thirstier, hotter, and sicker with each excruciating orbit around the Sun.