Global Health and the Climate Crisis
Tom Davids explores how the health of humans and the planet is intimately connected. Art by Ranuka Tandan The human body never was, and never will be, sheltered from the climate crisis. One of the most confronting effects of our changing climate, and by far the most direct and experiential, is the global health crisis it will create. The Lancet published a report in 2018 identifying the climate crisis as the biggest threat to global health in the 21st century, and insisting it will be the bodies of those most vulnerable in our globalised society that will bear the brunt of our negligence. This includes, but is not limited to, rural and urbanised poor, the elderly and those with chronic health conditions. There are many ways that this will manifest, but here I will discuss two of the most consequential: increases in diseases like malaria and worsening
(the worsening of a certain pre-existing conditions), namely in the elderly and those with respiratory or cardiovascular conditions. Dr Lucy Barard points out that “there is a welldefined value of (daily average) temperature above which mortality risk begins to rise”. This threshold will vary considerably across regions, depending on what their population is already accustomed to. However, in traditionally colder regions, that threshold is markedly low.
health outcomes from heat-waves. Soon, our changing environment will test us and our health-care systems in a multitude of ways; the possibilities seem endless and difficult to comprehend, but one thing is certain in this
15.4% increase in mortality. Again, during the European summer of 2003, a serious heatwave swept over the region, which led to 15,000 deaths in France alone. This represented a 60% increase in mortality
seemingly distant and external crisis - it will hit us in our most personal of spaces: the body itself.
on previous figures. The death toll across Europe is believed to have exceeded 30,000.
It is now generally accepted that a steady increase in the Earth’s temperature will not just cause a gradual change in ecosystems, but an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. One such event is the heatwave. It is common knowledge that heatwaves can have significant impacts upon general health, even when excluding the role of hyperthermia. According to Dr Sari Kovats, they can also cause spikes in mortality and morbidity
We, as humans, are very good at adapting to our environment. We’ve created changes in architecture to help with ventilation and air conditioners to blast us with cold air, but there are always limits to our ability to adjust to our environment. Expensive air conditioners and fancy houses with good ventilation to fight against heat waves are a privilege, meaning those who cannot afford these luxuries are further prone to suffer from the environmental
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In London this threshold is 19°C, with a risk starting to occur if the daily average over a prolonged period of time is at, or above this threshold. During the summer of 1976 in London, heatwaves were attributed to a
