Clear and Present Danger

In what has been often mentioned, but probably not accorded enough attention, the connection between climate and health has been brought to the notice of all concerned.

The Lancet medical journal and the University College London (UCL) Institute for Global Health have just released the final report of their year-long commission, noting that ‘Climate change will have devastating consequences for human health globally and during our children’s times, not some distant future. This will come from:
changing patterns of infections and insect-borne diseases, and increased deaths due to heat waves
reduced water and food security, leading to malnutrition and diarrhoeal disease
an increase in the frequency and magnitude of extreme climate events (hurricanes, cyclones, storm surges) causing flooding and direct injury
increasing vulnerability for those living in urban slums and where shelter and human settlements are poor
large scale population migration and the likelihood of civil unrest .

The carbon footprint of the poorest 1 billion people is around 3% of the world’s total footprint; yet, these communities are affected the most by climate change. Estimates show that small increases in the risk for climate-sensitive conditions, such as diarrhoea and malnutrition, could result in very large increases in the total disease burden. Malaria, tick-borne encephalitis, and dengue fever will become increasingly widespread.

The report calls to add health to the mitigation debate, by involving all players in health, science, technology, politics and civil society.

The six aspects of the climate-health connection - changing patterns of disease and mortality, food, water and sanitation, shelter and human settlements, extreme events, and population and migration - have been considered in relation to five key challenges to form a policy response framework: informational, poverty and equity-related, technological, sociopolitical, and institutional.