Climate change is not to blame for the diseases, the NCPA paper argues; misguided policies are to blame The paper argues that in Peru, for example, chlorination of drinking water kept the country cholera-free for decades. Then in 1991, Peru ceased chlorination because of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study that linked chlorine to increased risk of cancer. The following year, 300,000 cases of cholera were reported and an epidemic spread across South America, making a million people sick and killing 11,000. The paper makes a similar argument about the resurgence of malaria in Sri Lanka (the author called it by its old name, Ceylon), blamed on the banning of DDT. Thus tropical diseases can be blamed on poverty and bad government policies, according to the NCPA.
Not all diseases are blamed on climate change. Some people blame the Ebola and AIDS viruses on pollution, deforestation and species extinction, which alter natural balances. Monkeys carry a great number of viruses, including Ebola, to which humans are susceptible. Therefore, habitat destruction that drives monkeys into frequent contact with humans increases the chances of transmittal. Is this far fetched? Not really. Just look at the impact of the extensive 1997-1998 forest fires in Indonesia, particularly Borneo? Burning forests drove Orang-utans into villages where they came in direct contact with humans. Fortunately, there have been no cases of disease reported from such contacts. As species of primates are wiped out, viruses "will be forced to seek new hosts," according to Dr. Jaap Goudsmit, an AIDS expert at the University of Amsterdam, as quoted by the Environmental News Network (ENN) in an April 20, 1998 article, "Experts tie diseases to environment."
In another connection between animals and humans cited in the same ENN article, the spread of tick-borne Lyme disease in the Eastern United States is linked to the deer mouse population, which is affected by the size of the acorn crop. Mice feed on acorns. The more acorns, the more mice. Mice, which are prime targets for ticks, carry the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Ticks bite the mice, pick up the bacterium, then bite humans (and dogs), and the rest is medical history. ENN quotes the University of Connecticut's Richard Ostfeld who explains that while many animals carry the Lyme agent, only a few transmit it to ticks. He hypothesizes that spreading the disease among many animals would decrease the likelihood that it would be passed to humans. Ostfeld thinks a greater balance in nature would be an ally in the fight against such diseases.
