Climate change is already endangering human health today

How does climate change affect our health??

Increasingly, there are warnings about the negative effects of climate change. Researchers now found that people's health is already being negatively affected by the impact of climate change. The health burden will continue to increase in the future.

Researchers at University College London and other research institutes in their joint ongoing research found that climate change is already having a negative impact on people's health. The physicians published the report in the English-language journal "The Lancet".

Heat waves in Europe continue to increase. At such high temperatures it is particularly important to protect yourself by drinking and avoiding direct sunlight. (Image: Mikkel Bigandt / fotolia.com)

Heat waves in Europe are increasing

The negative effects of climate change range from heat waves in Europe to rising levels of dengue fever in the tropics, say the experts. Billions of hours of agricultural work were lost in the high temperatures and, of course, harvests are also affected. The current report was prepared by 150 experts from 27 universities and institutions such as the World Health Organization and the World Bank. The efforts to combat climate change need to be tripled or people face catastrophic climate change, experts warn. We can not delay climate change any more, this condition can not be ignored, according to the WHO communication.

What effects does global warming have??

The report sets out the critical effects of global warming on health. A rapidly changing climate has a profound impact on every aspect of human life, exposing vulnerable groups to extreme weather conditions, altering patterns of infectious diseases and impairing food security, clean drinking water and clean air, the report says.

Global warming threatens national health systems

On Tuesday, the UN declared that measures to reduce CO2 emissions must be tripled to avoid catastrophic warming. The international climate negotiations should resume on Monday in Poland. Lack of progress in mitigating global warming threatens both people's lives and national health systems, researchers say.

Europe and the eastern Mediterranean are particularly affected

A survey of executives from nearly 500 cities in the report found that half of respondents expect their public health infrastructure to be seriously impacted by climate change, resulting in systemic outages such as hospital decommissioning. A heatwave in Europe this summer alone was linked to hundreds of premature deaths in the UK. According to the report, populations in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean are at greater risk than in Africa and Southeast Asia, as the proportion of vulnerable and elderly people living in cities is high.

How does the heat affect you??

Very hot climatic conditions damage health directly from heat stroke and dehydration, but the worsening of conditions such as heart disease is also very dangerous. Heat also increases air pollution and mental health problems. Many communities are not prepared for the continued increase in the frequency, intensity and duration of heat waves, say the experts. Relatively small changes in temperatures and precipitation can already lead to major changes in the transmission of infectious diseases that spread via water and mosquitoes. The transmissibility of the dengue fever virus reached a record level in 2016, for example. The risk of cholera risk also increased in regions such as the Baltic States, where the sea has been rapidly warming up.

People need to take countermeasures now

The report clearly shows that climate change is already directly affecting health. Action against climate change must be prioritized to reduce the potentially devastating effects on the planet and the health of future generations. (As)