Deaths attributable to extreme heat, food insecurity and the spread of infectious diseases have reached record levels due to climate change. This was the overwhelming conclusion of the initiative’s new report The Lancet Countdown. The report warns of never-before-seen dangers to the well-being of humanity. It urges leaders around the world to take drastic measures to mitigate the effects of the environmental crisis.
The ninth installment of ‘The Lancet Countdown: tracking progress on health and climate change’ It was prepared based on the findings and experience of 122 leading researchers from multiple academic institutions and United Nations agencies. It evaluates 15 indicators that monitor risks, exposures and health impacts related to climate change. The data from this year’s edition expose an alarming scenario: 10 of the parameters studied reached critical levels, evidencing an unprecedented health situation.
“It is concerning that the multiple dangers revealed by these individual indices are likely to have simultaneous, cumulative and cascading effects on the complex and interconnected human systems that support good health. This represents a disproportionate threat to people’s well-being and survival, which increases with each fractional increase in global average temperature,” the research states.
The work points out that an extreme drought, which lasted at least a month, affected 48% of the planet’s land surface last year. The world’s population experienced around 50 days of temperatures harmful to health and food supply chains. The situation has resulted in an increase of 151 million people in conditions of moderate or severe food insecurity, with risk of malnutrition.
Deaths related to extreme heat, among inhabitants over 65 years of age, increased 167% in 2023 compared to the 1990s. Deaths related to the weather phenomenon would have increased by about 65% without the climate crisis and considering the aging trends of the world population, according to the study.
The investigation of The Lancet Countdown emphasizes the damage to mental health that aggressive climatic variations are causing. It points out that recurrent heat waves are responsible for a record 6% increase in hours of sleep lost last year, compared to the average documented between 1986 and 2005. It has been shown that lack of rest has serious implications for physiological functions. and cognitive.
Rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall intensified sand and dust storms, exposing 31% more people to harmful levels of particulate pollutants. Added to this are the changes in precipitation and the unusual floods that climate change is causing. The set of factors “is favoring the transmission of deadly infectious diseases such as dengue, malaria, West Nile virus and vibriosis in places that were previously unaffected,” the report warns.
Marina Romanello, executive director of The Lancet Countdowncondemns that “this year’s assessment of the imminent health threats posed by climate inaction reveals the most worrying findings so far. Records were broken in terms of climate change. “No individual and no economy on the planet is immune to this catastrophe.”
The specialist indicates that the “incessant expansion” of fossil fuels and growing greenhouse gas emissions aggravate the situation and reverse “the limited progress” that has been achieved so far to stop the climate crisis. The authors of the report charge that “governments and companies continue to invest in hydrocarbons, resulting in a staggering loss of trees. “This reduces the chances of survival for people around the world.”
Scientists urge immediate action to counter the trend. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, reiterates that “the climate crisis is a health crisis. “As the planet warms, the frequency and intensity of related disasters increases, with no region left unscathed.”
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