Impact of Climate Change on our Health
Climate change affects human health in two main ways: by changing the severity or frequency of health problems that are already affected by climate or weather factors; and by creating unprecedented or unanticipated health problems or health threats in places where they have not previously occurred.
Human health has always been influenced by the climate. Changes in climate and changes in extreme weather, affect the environment that provides us with clean air, food, water, shelter, and security.
Climate change has led to various health-related diseases in recent years. These diseases unknown to many have damaged the environment in numerous ways. It has left hospitals and communities with inadequate response to withstand the health care shocks.
Since the 19th century, many scientists have clamoured for a change in how human activities are carried out. These activities have led to an increasing greenhouse gas emission — the excessive trapping of heat in the atmosphere — causing extreme weather events.
The topic about how climate change affects human health formed the second session for the Virtual Cohort Programme which held on the 25th and 26th of April 2020,
The session was themed “Health Effects of Climate Change” with Miss. Deborah — Environmental Chemist, and Dr Azeezat Yishawu — a Medical Doctor and Climate Change Action Advocate were the two-day training tutors.
Deborah Anumenechi spoked extensively on the non-clinical impact on climate change on human health. From her perspective, there are existing gaps within potential climate change impacts on the health sector and its vulnerability to people.
This gaps could cause severe damages to both physical health and the mental health of various individuals.
She highlighted models and methodologies in existing projects to highlight the impacts of climate change on human health. It stated the effects of heat stress as a result of extreme weather events, various forms of diseases resulting from waste mismanagement and deforestation.
The after-effects of these activities, she said, are evident in the tons of industrial waste emitted, and the excessive use of non-biodegradable materials. It proves that human activities are causing costly changes to the environment.
She correlated the cause-effect relationships as far as possible between risk factors and health impacts — health data and data on non-climatic factors, which play a significant role in the spread of disease and implications for health risks.
She said that we need to improve impact modelling, vulnerability and risk assessments to tackle the challenge.
Sighting Lagos (a coastal state) as an example, she explained that the population density, congestion and the tons of waste emitted would cause a devastating effect on health and the environment if climate change impact were to hit hard.
For instance, if the sea-level rise leads to a surge that destroys rural residents’ houses along the shorelines, this act may render certain areas temporarily uninhabitable and unproductive. It could cause environmental stress.
She said many residents would have worse mental health cases by increasing anxiety, apathy, helplessness, depression and chronic psychological distress.
The next day, Dr Azeezat spoke on the impact of global climate change on the ecosystem, social environment and human health. She explained that the increase in temperature leads to various effect such as heat as mentioned earlier, cyclones, water pollution, air pollution, flood, drought translating into multiple forms of diseases.
She said, climate change could also have harmful effects on mental and occupational health, and its adverse impacts would be worse in attaining food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition. Potential health impacts from climate change may result from direct exposures, such as extreme temperature and precipitation, storms, cyclones and other extreme weather events; and indirect exposures, such as worsening air pollution and increasing pollen production.
Over time, a changing climate would also lead to changes in the distribution of vectors of disease. A critical indirect constraint may emerge through detrimental impacts on the agricultural sector, leading to food shortages and malnutrition.
Despite this change, we can still solve the climate crisis by looking into the global policy formulation and adapting it to fit into our current national problem and advocate for an alternating power source.
Simultaneously, we diverge industrialization, invest in green energy and technology while we place heavy taxes on fossil fuel users, and we plant trees as much as we can.
On a final note, the relationship between climate change and health has direct and indirect implications that need all level of attention.
Read to learn more — https://rravenetwork.medium.com/climate-change-and-human-activity-rravenetwork-vcprogramme-9f333da4e9c4
