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Climate change is primarily due to human activity after the Industrial Revolution. A large part of this is due to fossil fuel use and a second part to changes in land use. Experts say that changing global climatic conditions have significant impacts on human health. This is because the pace of change at the moment is the fastest it’s been in over a thousand years.
Introduction
Global warming is the result of global warming, which refers to the warming in surface air and sea temperatures over a three-decade period. This is due to human activity. Scientists say the earth’s mean surface temperature will rise by 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, at the current rate of 0.2°C per decade. Already, such an increase has been observed in many regions that house up to 40% global population in one or more seasons.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that rising temperatures, altered rainfall patterns, more severe extreme weather events and altered vector and pest habitat ranges are all effects. There is also an increase in coastal erosion and sea level rise. These changes will cause changes in the availability of food and water, changes in air quality, heat-related complications, and deaths, as well as malnutrition and malaria.
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Heat Waves
Heat waves will be more frequent and last longer if the temperature rises. The average daytime temperature will rise. In previous years, heat waves were responsible for tens of thousands deaths every year. Particularly, the 2003 heat waves in Europe saw 70,000 extra deaths, most of them in the elderly.
Heatwaves increase mortality in those with cardiovascular and respiratory disease. They can cause heatstroke, exhaustion, and respiratory symptoms. Due to poor temperature regulation, northerners are more accustomed to lower temperatures. They also have the highest excess mortality. Urban dwellers are at greater risk than rural residents.
Temperatures rising also increase crime and cause mental instability. Excessive heat can cause kidney damage, and food-borne illness from increased bacterial growth.
Hot environments can lead to poor sleep quality and discourage exercise. This can lead to many types of inflammatory diseases and workplace injuries, as well as reducing productivity.
Rising Sea Level
The average sea level will rise by 18 to 59 cm. Arctic ice is expected to melt completely at least once in a decade if the temperature rises by 2°C, compared to once every century if global warming is limited to below 1.5°C. The sea level rise is expected to continue past the turn of the century and will be on the order to several meters over the next hundreds to thousands of decades.
Coastal erosion and flooding in low-lying areas will be caused by an increase in sea level. Climate change could increase flood risk ten-fold or greater by 2080. This will mean that more than 100,000,000 people will need help to evacuate and resettle each year.
As large numbers of people are forced from their homes and communities are destroyed, refugee facilities will become necessary.
Coastal freshwater tables could become brackish. Stormwater and sewage drainage may also be affected. The oceans are becoming acidified as a result of the absorption of almost one third of carbon dioxide from human activity. This impacts a wide array of marine organisms, ecosystems, fisheries and aquaculture.
Air Pollution
Each year, air pollution in cities claims over a million lives. Warming is predicted to make air quality worse. It also changes weather patterns and triggers allergies.
Wildfires will become more frequent and more severe, creating more smoke which poses a serious hazard to the lungs. The smoke particles can be transported long distances and can cause serious health problems for people living far away.
The air contains both natural and anthrogenic particles. Fossil fuel combustion produces gases such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), directly or through the reaction of intermediate products and atmospheric compounds. Lung damage can lead to cancer, chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD), or cardiovascular disease.
In addition, particulate matter (PM – tiny suspended particles and droplets) is bound to increase. Fine PM (FPM), is defined as particles with sizes less than 2.5 micrometers. Rainfall is expected to increase, which could wash away PM from the air.
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Ground-level Ozone
Warm stagnant air is accompanied by an increase in ground-level oxygen, which causes smog formation and early death. The excess mortality from this cause is estimated to be in the tens to thousands each year.
Ground-level increases in ozone are predicted to cause tens or thousands of excessive deaths annually, with an increase of 4.5%.
Loss of Biodiversity
With global warming at or below 1.5°C, it is estimated that coastal ecosystems like mangroves, seagrass, and wetlands will be severely damaged. In fact, 70-90% may disappear from tropical coral reefs, and kelp forests may disappear. 4-8% of insects and plants will also perish.
Many species will migrate towards colder waters. Ocean ecosystems will be severely affected by damage to fisheries, acidification, hypoxia, dead zones, and other factors such as acidification, hypoxia, or both.
Weather Events
Extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and storms are likely to increase, putting people at greater risk, especially for those who find it difficult or impossible to evacuate. People may find it difficult to stay warm, get food and water, or to access medical care. Carbon monoxide poisoning is also increasing due to improper heater use during power outages.
In the 1990s, more than 600,000 people were killed and extensive property damage was caused by extreme weather events. These events are expected to increase in frequency by several-fold by 2050.
Vector-Borne Illness
As vectors spread across a larger area, vector-borne diseases like filariasis and West Nile fever, as well as malaria, dengue and filariasis are all on the rise. This is due to warmer regions, more frequent rainfall, and earlier migration seasons. These changes affect the natural hosts, the insects vectors, as well as the behavior of the human host, resulting in changes in transmission, incidence, prevalence, and other factors.
By the 2030s and 2080s respectively, over 170 million more cases of malaria and 2 billion more cases of dengue could occur. Zoonotic diseases such as malaria and dengue will increase as more farmers take over the forest.
Water-Borne Disease
Glacier melting and higher rates of evaporation could lead to water shortages. The world population is growing at the same rate, and it is expected that more than 3 Billion people will not have enough safe water to live a healthy life in 2050. This is compared to 1.5 Billion in 1990.
Lack of safe water accounts for nine-tenths in diarrheal disease. Climate change could hinder progress towards basic sanitation facilities for the 50% of developing countries that do not have them.
Toxin release may be caused by algal growth in warming waters. Water-borne pathogens, including the cholera germ, can multiply in warm waters. Combining excessive runoff from heavy rain and flooding with water contaminating water bodies used to drink, fish, and for recreation with sewage, industrial chemicals, and pollutants can lead to epidemics of human diseases.
Land Changes
Experts say droughts can last six times longer and occur twice more often if climate change does not stop. Droughts increase water scarcity and poverty in people already facing economic hardship. Droughts that occur in large areas in Africa and Asia can often cause changes elsewhere, such as dust storms caused by winds eroding the soil and changes to the rainfall patterns.
Permafrost covering 1.5 to 2.5 million kilometers will likely melt in the next few centuries, even with the current rate global warming.
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Food Insecurity
The accumulation of waterborne pathogens and pollutants will make seafood unpalatable. Food security could be compromised by heat-related decreases in crop yields of up to a fifth by 2050, even as the population nearly doubles. Extreme weather events can cause disruptions in food distribution by causing damage to transportation routes.
In developing countries, sustainable development is impossible without the potential for agricultural improvement.
Inevitable Impact
The greatest impact on this change will be felt by the people who are least responsible, that is, those living in developing countries. However, people from high-income countries have a greater risk of developing poor health. These are also the most vulnerable, as they are less likely to be able to prevent further poverty.
“The climate crisis is likely to reverse the progress made in development, global health and poverty reduction over the last fifty years, as well as to increase existing health inequalities among and within populations..”
According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, coastal communities (including small islands, low-lying countries, regions, areas that are dry, vulnerable to flooding, drought or desertification, as well as those with mountainous terrain are most at risk from climate change.
The most severe impacts of climate change will be felt by countries with poor food security, which are also vulnerable to coastal flooding, as well as those with high levels of vectorborne diseases that can expand with the climate change. The community and public health system must investigate and prepare for these changes if they are to be successful.
Children, women, migrants, children, and refugees are the most vulnerable to vector-borne or water-borne diseases. They are also the most affected by poor sanitation and are frequently the most malnourished. Climate change will increase the negative effects of underdevelopment and slow down or stop progress in education, food, livelihood, preventive health care to contain infectious diseases and sustainable development.
How to Adapt
Global warming is costing between 1% and 3 percent of the global total world product. At least half of this is due to loss in life. To ensure that sustainable development replaces the fossil-hungry, pollution-intensive development paradigms of the past, governments must establish broad frameworks.
Healthcare must be improved and early warning systems set up for weather events. To ensure future generations enjoy the planet, governments must be more concerned with the well-being than profit-driven, consumer-driven development strategies.
Refer to
- Climate Change 2022: Vulnerability, Adaptation and Impacts https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/
- Frumkin, H. (2020). Sustaining Life: Human Health–Planetary Health Linkages. Health of People, Health of Planet, and Our Responsibility. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-31125-4_3
- Patz, J. et al. (2012). Our Planet, our Health, Our Future: Human Health and the Rio Conventions: Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Desertification http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/2.1.1366.1767. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269334236_Our_Planet_Our_Health_Our_Future_Human_health_and_the_Rio_Conventions_biological_diversity_climate_change_and_desertification
- Climate Impacts on Human Health. (2017). https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-human-health_.html
- Climate change and health. (2021). https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health
- Rocque, R. J. et al. (2021). An Overview of Systematic Reviews on the Health Effects of Climate Change on Human Health. BMJ Open. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046333. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/6/e046333.info
- Tye, S. (2021). How Climate Change Impacts Health and How Countries Can Respond. https://www.wri.org/insights/how-climate-change-affects-human-health-countries
