Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century, a group of leading medical experts has warned.
Their 40-page report, published in collaboration with the medical journal The Lancet, lists direct and indirect effects of global warming that could have a major impact on human health.
They include changing patterns of infection and insect-borne disease, heat waves, water shortages, malnutrition, extreme weather events such as hurricanes, and inadequate living conditions.
The health effects will be felt most severely in poorer countries that have contributed least to carbon emissions, say the University College London research team.
They argue that international institutions and governments must do more to address the problem.
An accelerated drive against world poverty and new technological approaches to preserve food and water supplies and prevent disease were also needed.
Dr Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, suggested doctors have been in denial over climate change and need a wake-up call.
He explained: "What I hope it does is to make them realise that climate change is an urgent and dangerous issue that effects the patients they see on a daily basis.
"Their patients might not die tomorrow because of climate change but for them, their children and their grandchildren, climate change is going to be a danger to all of us."
The report authors also called for a "stronger engagement by all individuals in the social and political aspects of moving to low-carbon living".
The report, launched jointly with The Lancet, warned that climate forecasts may be too conservative.
Global temperature rises above the "safe threshold" of 2C could lead to abrupt, severe and irreversible changes in climate, it was claimed.
The worst case scenario of a 6 percent rise would be "catastrophic", said the experts, citing the heatwave in 2003 that caused up to 70,000 deaths in Europe..
Lead author, Professor Anthony Costello, said: "The big message is that climate change is a health issue affecting billions of people, not just an environmental issue about polar bears and deforestation."
"The impacts will be felt not just in the UK, but all around the world – and not just in some distant future, but in our lifetimes, and those of our children."
The report also suggested rich countries may not handle extreme weather events well, noting that many people were trapped in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 because it hit at the end of a pay period, when workers lacked bus fare.
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