How changing weather can affect human life?
How changing weather can affect human life?
Change in weather and climate has certainly affected human life since ages, an observed change in the temperature due to burning of fossil fuels, melting of glaciers and rise in global warming. These changes affected the human, wildlife and environment as clean air, water, food is indirectly accessible through them.
Human lives are affected while bringing numerous ill effects hampering life of today and tomorrow. Seeing the existing and future scenario, the health threats will intensify and new threats may also emerge. Reasons could be negligence in lifestyle, weak immunity, no exercise, areas with no food due to poverty and stress, inaccessible to basic sanitation, food or shelter, environment with pollution.
According to research between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, and heat stress.
Areas with weak health infrastructure – mostly in developing countries – will be the least able to cope without assistance to prepare and respond.
Pattern of Infection due to weather change-
Climatic conditions strongly affect water-borne diseases and diseases transmitted through insects, snails or other cold-blooded animals. Changes in climate are likely to lengthen the transmission seasons of important vector-borne diseases and to alter their geographic range.
Malaria is strongly influenced by climate. Transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes, malaria kills over 400 000 people every year – mainly children under 5 years old in certain African countries. The Aedes mosquito vector of dengue is also highly sensitive to climatic conditions, and studies suggest that climate change is likely to continue to increase exposure to dengue.
Measuring the health effects-
concluded that climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year between 2030 and 2050; 38,000 due to heat exposure in elderly people, 48,000 due to diarrhoea, 60,000 due to malaria, and 95,000 due to childhood undernutrition.
People at risk are?
All populations will be affected by climate change, but some are more vulnerable than others. People living in small island developing states and other coastal regions, megacities, and mountainous and polar regions are particularly vulnerable.
Children – in particular, children living in poor countries – are among the most vulnerable to the resulting health risks and will be exposed longer to the health consequences. The health effects are also expected to be more severe for elderly people and people with infirmities or pre-existing medical conditions.
Areas with weak health infrastructure – mostly in developing countries – will be the least able to cope without assistance to prepare and respond.
Measures to tackle the cause-
Many policies and individual choices have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and produce major health co-benefits. For example, cleaner energy systems, and promoting the safe use of public transportation and active movement – such as cycling or walking as alternatives to using private vehicles – could reduce carbon emissions, and cut the burden of household air pollution, which causes some 4.3 million deaths per year, and ambient air pollution, which causes about 3 million deaths every year.
As well as it’s an emergence to list down the priorities for protecting the human life, research on where we are lacking behind, and start prioritizing health.
Reference- https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health
