Climate Change and Its Impacts on Health

Key facts

Climate change affects the social and ecological determinants of health. It changes air, drinking water and many food resources. Universal warming that has occurred since the 1970s caused more than 145 000 deaths per annum by the year 2012.

The direct damage costs to health in different sectors such as agriculture and water and sanitation, is predicted to be between US$ 2-4 billion/year by 2030.

 Many of the major deceases such as diarrhoeal diseases, malnutrition, malaria and dengue are highly climate-sensitive and are expected to worsen as the climate changes.

Climate change

In the last 50 years, human activities specially the burning of fossil fuels have released sufficient quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to entrap supplementary heat in the lower atmosphere and affect the universal climate.

Around last 100 years, the world has warmed by approximately 0.75oC. Over the last 25 years, the rate of global warming has exceeded, at over 0.18oC per decade.

Sea levels are expanding, glaciers are melting and rain schedules are changing. Extreme weather events are becoming more concentrated and frequent.

What is the impact of climate change on health?

Global warming may bring some localized benefits perhaps, such as fewer winter deaths in temperate climates and increased food production in certain areas, the overall health effects of a changing climate are likely to be overwhelmingly negative.

Intense high air temperatures contribute directly to deceases from cardiovascular and respiratory disease, especially between aged people.  More than 70,000 deaths were recorded due to heat wave of summer 2003 in Europe.

 High temperatures also elevate the levels of ozone and other pollutants in the air.Urban air pollution cause about 1.2 million deaths annually.

The number of reported weather related natural disasters has more than tripled since the 1960s. These disasters cause of over 60 000 deaths every year, mostly in rising countries.

Increasing of commonly sea levels and growing extreme weather events will destroy homes, medical facilities and other essential services. More than half of the world's people lives within 60 km of the sea. People may be forced to move due to this risky climate change.

Increasingly variable precipitation patterns are likely to affect the provider of fresh water. A lack of safe water can cause of many executioner disease, which kills 2.2 million people annually. In extreme cases, water lack directs to drought and famine. By the 2090s, climate change is likely to widen the area affected by drought, double the frequency of extreme droughts and increase their average duration six-fold.

Floods are also generating numbers of deaths from the global and it is also cause of climate change. Floods infect freshwater supplies, increase the risk of water borne diseases, and create reproduction grounds for disease carrying insects such as mosquitoes. They also cause drowning and physical injuries, damage homes and interrupt the provider of medical and health services.

Rising temperatures and variable rainfall are likely to reduce the production of staple foods in many of the poorest areas by up to 50% by 2020 in some African countries. Changes in climate are likely to elongate the communication seasons of important vector borne diseases and to alter their geographic range.

Malaria is sturdily predisposed by climate. Transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes, malaria cause death of almost 1 million people every year generally in African children under five years old. The Aide mosquito vector of dengue is also highly sensitive to climate conditions. Studies suggest that climate change could expose an additional 2 billion people to dengue transmission by the 2080s6.

Who is at risk?

All populations will be affected by changes of climate, but some are more defenseless than others. People are living in small islands rising states and other coastal regions, mega cities, and precipitous and glacial regions are particularly vulnerable.

Changes of climate affect the children because children skins have not antibiotic features and their skins have not strong features for face the changes of atmosphere. The health effects are also expected to be more severe for elderly people and people with infirmities or pre-existing medical conditions.

World Health Organization’s response

Many policies and personnel options have the possible to reduce greenhouse gas emission and produce major health co-benefits. For example, encouraging the safe use of public transportation and active movement such as cycling or walking as alternatives to using private vehicles – could reduce carbon dioxide emissions and improve health.

The World Health Assembly sanctioned a new WHO work plan on climate change and health in 2009. This contains:

Advocacy: to raise alertness that climate change is a elementary threat to human health.

Partnerships: to coordinate with partner agencies within the UN system, and ensure that health is properly represented in the climate change agenda.

Science and evidence: to coordinate analysis of the scientific evidence on the links between climate change and health, and develop a global research agenda.

Health system strengthening: to assist countries to assess their health vulnerabilities and build capacity to reduce health vulnerability to climate change.