Philip Stevens

The World Health Organization claimed this week that “social injustice is killing people on a grand scale.” Its major report on the “Social Determinants of Health” concludes that social and economic inequality is a major global cause of disease and that only massive government intervention and redistribution of wealth can improve the health of the poor.  But, as with many prescriptions, the side effects would be worse than the disease.

It seems that polar bears and penguins are not the only victims of global warming. As climate talks wrap up in Bali, we heard from the World Health Organization that rising temperatures are also making humans less healthy as malaria spreads northwards and heatwaves become more common. The WHO is using such claims to justify swingeing cuts in carbon emissions in order to stabilise global temperatures. But if the aim is actually to improve health--particularly in poor countries--they would be hard pushed to get it more wrong.