Climate change is having an increasingly severe impact on human health around the world, according to the authors of the annual “Countdown” report published in the Lancet medical journal. The report’s authors combined research from dozens of international organizations, including the World Health Organization. It turns out that people are dying one and a half times more often because of the heat, and people are more likely to be infected with mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and dengue fever.
In an interview with the BBC, UN Secretary-General António Guterres acknowledged that there has been a recent tendency to defer action on climate issues and called for the issue to be put back on the international agenda. According to Guterres, the world’s dependence on fossil fuels has long been out of control. “We must tell the truth. The truth is that climate change is already having a devastating impact on some countries,” said the UN Secretary General. As the annual UN Climate Change Conference begins in Egypt in November, this report is a call for immediate action and a shift in humanity’s energy strategy.
“Governments and corporations in every country in the world continue to prioritize burning fossil fuels at the expense of people’s health and well-being. And we really, really need to take urgent action,” says one of the report’s authors, Professor Catherine Bowen of the University of Melbourne. Jodi Sherman, an expert from the Yale School of Medicine and the Center on Climate Change and Health and co-author of the report, told the BBC that both developed and developing countries should take action. However, the latter are less willing to do so. “No country is doing enough today. And the countries that are suffering the most from climate change are the least prepared to mitigate its effects. There are rich countries that are putting the most emissions into the atmosphere, and poor countries that do not have the resources to adapt,” Sherman notes.
The report, published in the prestigious medical journal Lancet, says that the health of people around the world is being entrusted to the proponents of burning fuel. According to the report, 4.7 million people will die from air pollution in 2020. In addition, 1.3 million deaths were directly linked to the burning of fossil fuels.
Drought is killing all living things in East Africa. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. The number of episodes should remain: episodes. End of story. Advertising on podcasts. One of the key issues is food security. The Lancet analysis showed that there are already 100 million more people facing acute food shortages than there were between 1981 and 2010. The area of arable land affected by severe drought has increased by nearly one-third in the last half century, leaving hundreds of millions of people unable to farm and at risk of dying of thirst.
“Climate change is already having a negative impact on food security, leading to alarming consequences such as malnutrition and undernutrition,” said Elizabeth Robinson, Director of the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics and lead author of the report. “Further increases in temperature, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, and carbon dioxide concentrations will put even greater pressure on food availability and access, especially for the most vulnerable populations,” she adds.
Record heat in Europe in the summer of 2022. Famous green English lawns in June resembled a prairie. In addition, climate warming is very favorable for mosquitoes, the vectors of many serious infectious diseases. The number of days per year with the highest risk of malaria transmission has increased by one-third in some parts of the Americas and by 14% in Africa compared to 1951-1960. As a result, the number of people infected with diseases carried by these mosquitoes has increased. Carbon emissions into the atmosphere exacerbate the consequences of global health crises, such as the pandemic. On the one hand, health systems are trying to find ways to cope with the consequences of Covid-19, while at the same time governments are allocating hundreds of billions of dollars in fossil fuel subsidies, which are often comparable to health budgets.
The report’s authors analyzed the actions of 86 governments around the world and found that in 2019, 69 of them subsidized fossil fuel production and consumption to the tune of $400 billion.
Record heat in Europe in the summer of 2022. In southwestern France, near Bordeaux, over 1000 firefighters battled a massive forest fire for several days. And while consumers struggle with rising electricity bills, fossil fuel companies are making record profits. At the same time, the plans of the fifteen largest among them do not fit into the strategy of safe global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius – the goal the participants of the Paris climate agreement decided to strive for. If we continue at the current rate, it will take 150 years to completely eliminate carbon burning, which again does not align with the goal of the countries participating in the Paris Agreement to achieve zero emissions by 2050. “The current strategies of many governments and companies tied to fossil fuels are leading us to a deadly future – one that is warmer, but not conducive to life,” warns Paul Ekins, a professor at London University College. He believes that governments are demonstrating an inability to recognize the urgency of the issue and work toward a carbon-neutral world. The report’s authors call for a “health-focused response” from the authorities. For example, improving air quality or accelerating the transition to a plant-based diet could reduce agricultural emissions into the atmosphere by 50 percent and prevent up to 11.5 million diet-related deaths, according to the report’s authors.
Justin Rowlett, BBC Climate Change Editor Today’s report in the Lancet is a call to action. Its authors hope they have provided enough evidence of the need for urgent action at the UN climate summit in Egypt. However, these ideas may meet with strong resistance. Developing countries will demand that their wealthy neighbors who have benefited from fossil fuels provide more money to compensate for the losses and damages caused by climate change. What about the $100 billion a year for climate change that developed countries were supposed to provide from 2020, will you ask? There is still a hole in that budget. The Egyptians, who are hosting the UN Climate Summit (COP27), warned of a crisis of confidence in the promises made by developed countries. In developed countries, however, they have their own problems: trying to cope with the rising cost of living as energy resources and food become more expensive. And many of them are also spending billions on military support for Ukraine. So get ready for some heated debates in Egypt.