Climate change has been a controversial topic since Al Gore’s 2006 documentary, an Inconvenient Truth, with people passionately defending both sides of the debate – climate change deniers and climate change believers. Over the past year climate change has become very topical due to the United States pulling out of the Paris Agreement. This is an agreement that aims to facilitate a global response to climate change by “keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.” Countries throughout the world have committed to working towards this aim and will report regularly on their emissions.
Why are we so concerned about climate change? Researchers have been able to demonstrate that climate change will have a significant impact on the weather, agriculture and a range of other areas. This week, The Lancet Countdown report has demonstrated the impact of climate change on our health.
What is the Lancet Countdown?
The Lancet Countdown is an international research collaboration consisting of 26 institutions tracking the world’s response to climate change and in so doing have been able to reveal the impact that climate change has on the public’s health.
Some of the research findings
In this week’s report, researchers stated that climate change is “already a significant public health issue and a looming global health emergency.”
Some of their key findings were:
- Between 2000 and 2016, the number of vulnerable people exposed to heatwave events had increased by around 125 million.
- Annual weather-related disasters increased by 46% from 2000 to 2013.
- Vectorial capacity for the transmission of dengue increased by 9.4% (Aedes aegypti) and 11.1% (Aedes albopictus) due to climate trends since the 1950s.
- The number of undernourished people in 30 countries vulnerable to climate change and highly dependent on regional food production has increased from 398 million in 1990 to 422 million in 2016.
- Over 803,000 premature and avoidable deaths in 2015 as a result of air pollution across 21 Asian countries, attributable to just one type of air pollution from coal power, transport and use of fossil fuels in the home.
The report highlights the progress that has been made to tackle climate change and this includes:
- Many countries now have a climate change risk assessment in place
- Over a third of countries in the study have developed plans to increase the climate resilience of their health infrastructure
- The total primary energy supply of coal peaked in 2013 and has been rapidly declining, showing a movement towards cleaner energy supplies
Prof. Anthony Costello, Co-Chair of the Lancet Countdown and a Director at the World Health Organization concluded that:
“Climate change is happening and it’s a health issue today for millions worldwide. The outlook is challenging, but we still have an opportunity to turn a looming medical emergency into the most significant advance for public health this century.”
The Lancet Countdown will continue to report on climate change annually with the aim of ensuring that governments continue to pursue efforts to prevent climate change.
Our Thoughts
The Lake Foundation was happy to see this report published which provided an update on the progress being made to tackle climate change and clearly explained the impact on our health. It was sad to read that climate change is disproportionately affecting communities least responsible for climate change and those most vulnerable in society. We need to understand how we can encourage those that are most responsible for climate change to take responsibility and act now. There is work to be done to discuss climate change with those who believe it doesn’t exist, many people with this view are very influential and there needs to be some form of compromise so that progress can be made. The take home message should be that regardless of your view, we need to respect and take care of the planet. Reducing pollution and preserving our wildlife is the right thing to do, you can’t really argue with that.
For more information on the Lancet Countdown report please visit their website here
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