Climate change: a disease that is advancing

A week before the start of a new summit on climate change, to be held this year in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, diagnoses and forecasts are not at all optimistic

A week before the start of a new summit on climate change, to be held this year in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the diagnoses and forecasts are not at all optimistic.

Global warming continues unabated and its severe impacts are increasingly affecting the foundations of human health and well-being, warns a report published by The Lancet.

Just recovering from the strenuous effort involved in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic, he notes, health services are facing increasing pressure from the effects of extreme weather events, which over the past two years have included devastating floods in Australia, Brazil, China, Western Europe, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa and South Sudan; wildfires in Canada, the United States, Greece, Algeria, Italy, Spain and Turkey, and record temperatures in many countries.

Vulnerable populations such as adults over 65 and children under one year of age are more exposed to heat waves, while deaths related to high temperatures increased 68 percent between 2000-2004 and 2017-2021.

“Simultaneously, climate change is affecting the spread of infectious diseases, putting populations at greater risk for emerging diseases and co-epidemics.”

And, on the other hand, food security is increasingly threatened in various regions of the planet, both by climate change and by the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and by the escalation of prices.

Prepared by a large group of specialists, the report Countdown on health and climate change: at the mercy of fossil fuels, considers 43 indicators ranging from impacts and risks on health systems, to economic costs and political commitments involved.

Among the reasons for concern it lists are:

• Between 2000 and 2021, the world’s population was exposed to an average increase in summer temperature twice as high as the historical average.
• Heat-related mortality of people 65 and older increased 68 percent.
• Human exposure to dangerous days from very strong or extremely strong wildfires grew 61 percent.
• On average, 29 percent more global land area was affected by extreme droughts for at least one month between 2012 and 2021, compared to the period 1951-1960.
• Climatic suitability for dengue transmission increased 11.5 percent for Aedes aegypti and 12 percent for Aedes albopictus.
• In 2021, crop growing seasons were reduced globally by 9.3 days for maize, 6 for winter and spring wheat and 1.7 for rice.
• Heatwaves were associated with 98 million more people reporting moderate to severe food insecurity in 2020.

The Lancet report notes that the impacts of climate change on health systems are very diverse.

They also occur, he warns, simultaneously and can cause cascading effects on the natural and social systems on which the good health of the population depends.

“With the worsening impacts of climate change compounding other coexisting crises, populations around the world are increasingly relying on health systems as their first line of defense.”

“Urgent action is therefore needed to strengthen the resilience of health systems, prevent loss of life and prevent suffering.”

Mental health, he says, has to be included when assessing the impacts of climate change and designing measures to address it.

Indirectly, he exemplifies, phenomena such as droughts, which reduce livelihoods, can affect family relationships and increase stress.

“The increasingly visible effects of the climate crisis have given rise to emerging concepts, such as climate anxiety, solastalgia (climate change distress), echo anxiety and ecological grief.”

Countries, he insists, are currently facing multiple crises simultaneously: they are recovering from the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, dealing with an energy crisis and facing the increasingly severe consequences of climate change.

“Placing human health at the center of an aligned response to these simultaneous crises could represent the last hope of ensuring a safer future for all.”

Triple crisis

What we are facing is a triple planetary crisis shaped by climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, diagnoses the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

And, in addition, he says, the world is witnessing the convergence of crises related to energy, food and the rising cost of living, all aggravated by the war in Ukraine.

In the 2022 Emissions Gap Report: The Window Is Closing, presented last Thursday, he stresses that efforts to curb global warming are clearly insufficient.

According to preliminary calculations, global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reached 52.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e), which exceeds the 2019 figure and sets a record.

“With the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, annual GHG emissions globally must be reduced by 45 percent compared to policy-based emissions projections in place in just eight years,” UNEP warns.

In addition to emission reductions in the energy and industrial sectors, he notes, additional efforts are required in others.

The food system is responsible for one-third of all emissions, he says, and must be drastically reduced.

“Projections suggest that emissions from the food system could reach 30 GtCO2e/year by 2050. In order to adopt an emissions trajectory in line with the temperature target of the Paris Agreement, food systems will need to rapidly transform across multiple domains, such as changing diets, protecting natural ecosystems, improving food production and decarbonising the food value chain.” Raises.

“Transforming food systems is a crucial component of tackling climate change and environmental degradation, but it is also essential to ensure that everyone has access to healthy diets and food security.”

Source: El Mañana