For the first time at a major UN climate talks, human health emerged as a leading issue, calling for a reframing that brings climate change’s far-reaching and long-lasting effects to the forefront.

There is a growing body of research showing that climate change is contributing to a wide range of health risks around the world. It is exacerbating heat waves, intensifying wildfires, heightening flood risks and worsening droughts. These are, in turn, increasing heat-related mortality, pregnancy complications and cardiovascular disease. And as with many things climate-related, the risks and harms are particularly severe in places that are the least able to respond.

 Besides, drier soil contributes to malnutrition and warming temperatures can expand habitats suitable to dengue- or malaria-carrying mosquitoes, lyme-carrying ticks, and the pathogens that cause diseases like cholera and Valley Fever. ((https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/climate/public-health-climate-change.html).

The rapidly warming climate is the "greatest threat" to global public health, more than 200 medical journals warned in a joint statement that urges world leaders to cut heat-trapping emissions to avoid "catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse." The editorial said, "No temperature rise is 'safe'," the editorial says. "In the past 20 years, heat-related mortality among people over 65 years of age has increased by more than 50%." (https://www.npr.org/2021/09/07/1034670549/climate-change-is-the-greatest-threat-to-public-health-top-medical-journals-warn). The World Health Organization estimates that between 2030 and 2050, at least 250,000 additional deaths will occur every year as a result of climate change. (https://www.who.int/health-topics/climate-change#tab=tab_1)

The health of the planet and the lifestyle of its people are closely interlinked. Replacing meat and dairy consumption with fruit, vegetables and cereals, would result in around 20 per cent reduction in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, while also avoiding or delaying 37 000 deaths a year from coronary heart disease, stroke and diet-related cancer. Encouraging active travel through increased walking and cycling will contribute to emissions reductions while also improving physical fitness and reduced risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and musculoskeletal disease.

Yet, for too long, the health burden of climate change did not feature in the climate narrative.

READ MORE: https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2707