Climate Change and its Impact on Health

The World Health Organisation warns, “Climate change is the greatest challenge of the 21st century, threatening all aspects of the society in which we live”.

Although 175 countries have pledged to reduce their emissions, known as the Paris Agreement, a study shows a big gap between actual emissions and the promises made by each country.

According to the study, “The health effects of climate change: Know the risks and become part of the solutions,” meeting each country’s emissions target is not just a theoretical “nice to have” since climate change is now an emerging health threat.

In Canada, where the study is conducted, impacts of climate change are emerging, like documented coastal erosion, thawing permafrost, increases in heatwaves, droughts, and flooding, not to mention risks to critical infrastructure and food security. What’s alarming about this is the arrival of diseases only seen in warmer climates (Howard and Huston, 2019).

Howard and Huston (2019) cited the 2019 Environment and Climate Change Canada report, which notes that Canada is currently warming twice the global mean rate, and the Canadian Arctic is warming at triple the international rate.

Climate change threatens the health and food security

These warming poses some health threats, and as temperature rises in the north, it threatens food security for the indigenous population, impacts ice-based travel, which has been affected, and impacts mental health, the study says.

• Health threats mentioned in the study that climate change caused are the following:
• Increased heat stroke and death from the duration of heat waves,
• Anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders are also expected to rise as extreme weather conditions continue to increase,
• and respiratory health risks due to air pollution from wildfires. These extreme wildfires are predicted to increase in number as warming continues.
• Due to an increase in temperatures, infectious diseases, such as tick-borne diseases, endemic and exotic mosquito-borne diseases, and foodborne diseases, will also increase.

These increasing health risks from climate change are adding stress on healthcare facilities and healthcare providers.

Global and national initiatives

Global and national initiatives have been developed due to climate change-related health impacts.

For instance, health professionals in Canada have been increasingly considering and responding to the health effects of climate change. Due to a better understanding of the health dimensions of climate change, they are becoming more prepared and resilient.    

The World Health Organization has developed a global strategy that calls for integrating public health and environmental science to work on primary intervention and policies that address the causes of these health threats.

In Canada, health institutions have come together to identify climate change as a health emergency. A couple of medical student associations have called for integrating climate health into medical education by the end of 2020 to equip health professionals to deal with climate-related health issues in the future.  

Canada is also on track to phase out coal power by 2030, which is expected to deliver $1.3 billion in health and environmental benefits because of better air quality.  Regarding their diet, Canadians have put out a Food Guide emphasising a plant-rich diet that would reduce animal-based consumption. An effort that would further reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Risk of an outbreak

The article by Stanford University discusses the risk of an outbreak of mosquito-borne diseases due to the warming weather.

It describes how mosquitoes roam beyond their current habitats, bringing diseases like dengue fever, malaria, chikungunya, and West Nile virus. As temperatures increase around the globe, so do the number of months these disease-carrying mosquitoes will be active.

The article shows a globe map showing the regions at risk for these vector-borne diseases and predicts the number of months these disease-carrying creatures will be active depending on the rate of warming.

Stanford biologist, Erin Mordecai, says, “The good news: higher global temperatures will decrease the chance of most vector-borne diseases spreading in places that are currently relatively warm. The bad news: warming will increase the chance that all diseases spread in relatively cold places.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Karl Hipolito owns the background images for the header and featured images, which were used with his permission.