- The Guardian
- Issue #2118
“Climate change presents a fundamental threat to human health. It affects the physical environment as well as all aspects of both natural and human systems – including social and economic conditions and the functioning of health systems. It is therefore a threat multiplier, undermining and potentially reversing decades of health progress. As climatic conditions change, more frequent and intensifying weather and climate events are observed, including storms, extreme heat, floods, droughts, and wildfires. These weather and climate hazards affect health both directly and indirectly, increasing the risk of deaths, noncommunicable diseases, the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, and health emergencies,” warns the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“Climate change is also having an impact on our health workforce and infrastructure, reducing capacity to provide universal health coverage. […] All aspects of health are affected by climate change, from clean air, water and soil to food systems and livelihoods.”
Already of extreme concern, 2 billion people – 25 per cent of the global population – lack safe drinking water, and 600 million suffer from foodborne illnesses annually, with children under 5 bearing 30 per cent of foodborne fatalities. The WHO also notes that 3.6 billion people – almost half the global population – live in areas already highly susceptible to climate change. Low-income countries and small island developing states that have contributed least to global emissions, experience the harshest health impacts.
In addition to geographic disparities, there are connections to other inequalities, such as socioeconomic disadvantage, lack of access to resources, and persisting colonial power structures. Climate change acts as an amplifier of social injustice as it applies to health and wellbeing. In vulnerable regions, the death rate from extreme weather events in the last decade is 15 times higher than in less vulnerable ones.
Massive emissions of greenhouse gases that heat the earth’s atmosphere are a specific feature of a destructive and exploitative economic model that has been dominant for the past 100-150 years – capitalism. It is based on fossil fuel use, exploitation and maximisation of profits no matter the cost to health and the environment.
Extreme heat has already taken hundreds of thousands of lives. The WHO conservatively estimates that climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year, from undernutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, and heat stress alone. Climate change affects food availability, quality and diversity, and exacerbates food and nutrition crises, especially among the young, the elderly, Indigenous and most vulnerable communities.
Those whose health is being harmed the most by the climate crisis are the people who contribute least to its causes, and who are least able to protect themselves and their families against it – people in low-income countries and communities. No one is safe from these risks.
A rapid reduction in the emissions of greenhouse gases through such means as phasing out fossil fuels; replacement of cars with public transport; and changes to agricultural practices, food and energy use choices would result in large gains for health. Such measures cannot wait if humanity is to survive.
The effects of climate change on health will increasingly depend on the extent to which transformational action is taken now to reduce emissions and avoid the breaching of dangerous temperature thresholds and potential irreversible tipping points. The world must limit temperature rise to 1.5°C as a matter of urgency. Every additional fraction of a degree of warming will take a serious toll on people’s health and lives.
We’ll give the last word to the World Health Organisation:
“Further delay in tackling climate change will increase health risks, undermine decades of improvements in global health, and contravene our collective commitments to ensure the human right to health for all.”
