The risk posed by COVID-19 to human health is now well understood around the world. In contrast, the colossal health threat posed by global warming, with a wide range of long-term effects on human well-being, is poorly understood and underestimated.
Yet climate change is already damaging human health. During the monsoon in Bangladesh in 2020, for example, more than a quarter of the country was inundated. At least 1.3 million homes were damaged and hundreds of people died. Rising sea levels caused by climate change will make these events more frequent in low lying countries like Bangladesh. Other regions of the world will also be at risk of flooding of a similar magnitude.
Heavy flooding doesn’t just destroy homes. They overflow untreated sewage, contaminating drinking water and spreading infections. They destroy crops, increasing the incidence of malnutrition. And rising sea levels make drinking water more salty, increasing rates of high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia and premature births.
These are by no means the only health risks caused by climate change. Rising temperatures increase cases of severe heat-related illness. And prolonged droughts, like severe flooding, reduce agricultural productivity and yields.
The many ways that global warming will affect our health are not yet fully understood. But its consequences are becoming clearer as the changes in our environment take a more dramatic turn.
Global strategy
The international community urgently needs to adopt a comprehensive strategy to minimize illness and death from climate change in the decades to come. As with the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and scientists will need to work together to find effective solutions. Limiting future temperature rise will be one component of any effective approach, and adaptation to a warmer climate will be another. But these two imperatives must be pursued in order to protect – even improve – public health.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) currently taking place in Glasgow is the perfect opportunity for world leaders to prove that they understand that global warming is also a health crisis and that they have fired lessons from the successes and failures of the pandemic response. In less than two years, COVID-19 has caused millions of deaths and disrupted our lives. We’ve seen how scientists, governments, and businesses have worked together to develop diagnostic tools, treatments, and vaccines. But we also saw how short-sighted national interests and socio-economic inequalities limited access to affordable options, making the crisis last.
World leaders gathered for COP26 have a historic opportunity to show that they understand that climate change is not only a pressing environmental challenge, but also one of the most pressing health challenges the world has ever faced.
Governments are not alone in this fight. It is the responsibility of civil society organizations to support efforts over the coming decades to address the global health challenges posed by climate change. We need to build a collaborative global process that generates, values and, most importantly, uses scientific evidence to fight climate change and improve the health of all. The Wellcome Trust medical charitable foundation, of which I am president, is committed to funding research that better understands and responds to the negative health effects of global warming. She also intends to advocate strongly for scientific research and evidence to be at the heart of policy making.
Prevention
As with any health threat, prevention is better than cure. There will be no vaccine to immunize people against the effects of heat waves, forest fires, droughts and severe floods, so reducing the rate at which global temperatures are currently rising is the best measure of prevention at our disposal, and that means reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Fortunately, reducing emissions can have a direct and positive effect on health. For example, the global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy could increase the average life expectancy in the world by at least a year. Likewise, the widespread adoption of diets high in vegetables and low in meat will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and decrease the risk of heart disease, cancer and dementia.
But while reducing GHG emissions will limit future harm, it will not eliminate the health risks already implied by decades of global warming. We can’t help but adapt to life on a warmer planet.
Faced with the growing threat of large-scale flooding, many coastal communities – notably in the United States, Kenya and Vietnam – are planting mangrove forests. These marine swamp ecosystems include trees that grow in salt water and provide natural protection against rising oceans. Mangroves also promote biodiversity and are conducive to aquaculture and the establishment of floating market gardens.
The task today is to design a set of creative options that people around the world can use to decide how best to protect themselves and their communities. Dealing with the inevitable symptoms of a warmer planet and helping communities adapt is the responsibility of governments, but some level of international coordination, as well as the acquisition of new knowledge, which can only be provided by an agreed global strategy on climate and health are also needed.
The task is enormous and time is running out. But science is there to guide us.
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