Researchers led by Professor Jonathan Patz of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said the health burden of climate change will rest disproportionately on the world's poor, posing an ethical dilemma for the developed world.

"Our high consumption of energy is putting a huge disease burden on places that are quite remote from us," said Patz. "There are many serious diseases that are sensitive to climate and as Earth’s climate changes so, too, can the range and transmission of such diseases."

The new study, said Patz, begins to link the scientifically quantifiable aspects of climate change to the ethical dimensions of the problem.

The authors quantified the ethical dimension of global climate change by measuring per capita carbon emissions and comparing that data with climate-related disease burden for the most affected regions of the world. The results, they said, show a stark contrast between populations causing global warming from those suffering the impacts.

The study is to appear in the journal EcoHealth.