Climate Change and Health (revised)

Global warming is a fairly recent phenomenon that affects us all.  Due to the rising population of the planet, humans are producing an increasing amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) which in turn is emitted into the atmosphere creating the greenhouse effect. According to the World Health Organization, global warming currently contributes to more than 150,000 deaths in low income countries each year, and, in urban areas, air pollution causes about 1.2 million deaths every year.  Climate change creates an rise in infectious diseases and illnesses due to air pollution and rising temperatures.  In addition, climate change has an impact on world hunger.

Global warming is harmful to human health.  In fact, it affects the rates of malnutrition in the world, it causes diarrhea, malaria and dengue fever (due to an increase in rainfall and temperature which allows the mosquitos that transmit malaria to complete their life cycle), and Hanta virus as well as similar diseases in the West.  It also causes deaths due to natural disasters (floods, hurricanes, etc), and cardiovascular deaths due to the fluctuations of temperature (heat waves). Deaths due to the cold as well as the heat are most frequent in infants and elderly people because of their inability to sweat efficiently, to take care of themselves, and to control their environment.  Deaths caused by temperature are avoidable and therefore need to be taken seriously in order to prevent them.

Furthermore, due to high levels of ground-level ozone and traffic pollution, there is more smog in the air which causes harm to people’s respiratory systems.  Air pollution impacts mostly poor countries where there are the highest rates of starvation, death, and disease.  It’s unfortunate that global warming has its biggest impact on the countries that contribute to it the least.  For example, the countries that pollute the most barely see the impacts of global warming while those who pollute significantly less are the ones who suffer the most consequences.  According to the Nature Report on climate change, those regions, which are at highest risk for disease due to increased heat and climate change, are the countries bordering the coastline of the Pacific and Indian oceans as well as Sub-Saharan Africa.

Another way to look at the ways global warming and climate change affect human health is to look at the ways in which it is related to obesity. In November 2010, representatives from countries around the world met in Cancún, Mexico, at the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference.  It is ironic that the meeting took place there because Mexico is the second country with the most obese population after the United States.  North American populations have an unlimited availability to unhealthy food therefore causing an increased rate of diabetes, heart disease, strokes and cancer.  Also, Mexico city is one of most populated cities in the world and has a large impact on global warming because of the large amount of unchecked cars (cars that release large amounts of CO2) and a rapidly growing population.

Mexico as well as the rest of North America, has an increased use of motor vehicle activity which is caused by people being less physically active.  Fossil fuel energy being released into the world’s atmosphere is the cause of both the planet getting hotter and the population getting fatter.

Global warming therefore has an impact on the transport sector. By meeting the greenhouse gas emission targets in that sector, there will be an augmentation in the rates of walking and cycling by reducing the use of motor vehicles.  By cycling or walking instead of using cars, the rates of chronic disease will be drastically reduced, with an approximate reduction of 10-20% in ischaemic heart disease and strokes, a 12% reduction in breast cancer, 8% reduction in dementia, and a 6% reduction in depression, simply by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases!  Those statistics do not, however, include the positive impact on mental health by improving urban greening, reducing community separation, reducing obesity and lowering noise level in the city.

The project suggested at the meeting in Mexico considered many ways to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and also considered reducing the production of livestock to lower the amount of cattle.  Cattle releases methane into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming.  By reducing the production of livestock, not only would there be less methane released into the atmosphere, but there would be a reduction in ischaemic heart disease and colon and rectum cancer, because there is a lot of saturated fat in red meat.  By reducing the consumption of saturated fats and by doing more physical activity, the population would be a lot healthier and physically fit.

The way livestock is fed also affects the world’s health.  Since animals in the food industry are fed grains, there is less food available for humans to eat, and in the world we live in, there are millions of people going hungry. Therefore by reducing the amount of animals we consume, more people in the world could eat the grains.

Surprisingly the impact of motor vehicle use on the planet and world starvation are linked together. By reducing the use of cars, food prices would go down and less people would go hungry.  Car use brings up food prices because oil is a key agricultural input.  Therefore, reducing car use helps to prevent starvation.

The Climate and Health Council is making a collective effort to combat the causes of climate change and is trying to ascertain that human health is put first in the negotiations of climate change.  Human health is the most important consequence of global warming so must be taken seriously.