Climate Change: Threat to Human Health

The threat to human health from climate change is so great that it could undermine the last fifty years of gains in development and global health.

However, the report provides comprehensive new evidence showing that because responses to mitigate and adapt to climate change have direct and indirect health benefits — from reducing air pollution to improving diet — concerted global efforts to tackle climate change actually represent one of the greatest opportunities to improve global health this century.

According to Professor Anthony Costello, “Climate change has the potential to reverse the health gains from economic development that have been made in recent decades — not just through the direct effects on health from a changing and more unstable climate, but through indirect means. However, our analysis clearly shows that by tackling climate change, we can also benefit health, and tackling climate change if fact represents one of the greatest opportunities to benefit human health for generations to come.”

The report shows that the direct health impacts of climate change come from the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, especially heat waves, floods, droughts and storms. Indirect impacts come from changes in infectious disease patterns, air pollution, food insecurity and malnutrition.

There are numerous ways in which action on climate change brings immediate health gains — burning fewer fossil fuels reduces respiratory diseases, and active transport (walking and cycling) cut pollution and road traffic accidents, and reduces rates of obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke. There are also health benefits from changes to diet which might arise from a concerted effort to tackle climate

Source: Science Daily

N.H.Khider