The climate crisis has led to a stunning surge in heat-related fatalities, widespread food scarcity and a rise in pestilence, as per a crucial document. The ninth health and climate disturbance report by The Lancet Countdown exposed the unprecedented menaces to global health due to severe climate changes.
“This year’s audit of the looming health hazards of climate inaction has divulged the most alarming discoveries to date,” cautioned Dr Marina Romanello, the chief executive of the Lancet Countdown at University College London. “Climate change records were shattered once again last year, with severe heatwaves, lethal climatic activities, and damaging wildfires impacting individuals globally. None are spared, neither individuals nor economies, from the health perils of climate alteration. The unremitting proliferation of fossil fuels and record-high greenhouse gas emissions heightens these perilous health impacts and poses a threat to roll back the minimal advancements achieved, making a healthy future even more inaccessible.”
The study uncovered that in 2023, an intense drought that lasted for a minimum of one month impacted 48% of the global land area, while people grappled with an unparalleled additional 50 days of temperatures threatening to health than what would have been envisaged without the climate catastrophe. Consequently, an extra 151 million people faced moderate to severe food scarcity, potentially resulting in malnutrition and other health detriments.
The over-65 age group experienced a 167% surge in heat-related deaths in 2023 when compared to the 1990s. In the absence of the climate crisis, these deaths would have escalated due to an ageing population, but only by 65%. Excessive temperatures also led to a record spike in sleep deprivation by 6% in 2023 compared to the average from 1986 to 2005. This lack of sleep detrimentally impacts both physical and mental wellbeing.
An increase in hot and arid weather led to a rise in sand and dust storms, resulting in a 31% upsurge in the population exposed to alarmingly high particulate matter concentrations. Lethal illnesses such as dengue, malaria and West Nile virus continue to invade new territories due to increased temperatures.
Despite the dangerous implications, the study found that both companies and authorities are inextricably tied with continuing in fossil fuels investment, culminating in unparalleled greenhouse gas emissions and a worrisome decrease in global forest cover, thereby compromising survival prospects across the globe.
In 2023, carbon dioxide emissions related to global energy production soared to an unprecedented high, escalating by 1.1% compared to 2022. Similarly, fossil fuel percentage in the worldwide energy infrastructure surged for the first time within a 10-year time frame in 2021, forming 80.3% of comprehensively produced energy.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the World Health Organisation, reacted to these findings saying the climate crisis equivalently represents a health crisis. With global warming elevation, climate-related catastrophes are growing in their regularity and severity, with not one region on the planet being spared.
In his view, the report unambiguously points out that climate change represents a pressing health risk, rather than a remote danger. United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, identified the highest ever emissions as a significant threat to global health, urging for a comprehensive indictment of climate inaction. This would involve drastic emission cuts, safeguarding populations from climate extremes, and an end to our reliance on fossil fuels, paving way for a future that’s healthier, fairer and safer.
Effects of the climate crisis are being perceived even in temperate nations. Over the period of 2013-2022, the UK saw an average increase in heat-related fatalities, surging by about nine deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. Further, around eight and a half million potential work hours were lost due to overheating in 2023.
Dr Lea Berrang Ford, the leader of the Centre for Climate and Health Security at the UK Health Security Agency, when publishing the Agency’s own report of global warming’s health impacts on the UK, made it clear that climate change wasn’t just a future threat to health; it’s effects can already be seen both nationally and internationally, and these risks are set to accelerate.
She highlighted the potential for beneficial solutions that can simultaneously improve health and combat climate change. As per Dr Josh Foster, a human environmental physiology lecturer at King’s College London, the findings point to “alarming” trends that will culminate in more regular mass deaths in the elderly as climate change’s destructive effects take hold.