Third World bears brunt of global warming impacts

"Our consumptive lifestyles are having lethal impacts on other people around the world, especially the poor," Patz says. "There are options now for leading more energy-efficient lives that should enable people to make better personal choices."

"Those least able to cope and least responsible for the greenhouse gases that cause global warming are most affected," says lead author Jonathan Patz, a professor at UW-Madison's Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. "Herein lies an enormous global ethical challenge."