Climate Change and Risk to Human Health

Climate change has been a topic of debate worldwide for sometimes now. It has become one of the
biggest health threats for mankind. Climate change has led to frequent extreme weather events, such as
heat waves, storms and floods and has and has caused increased in morbidity and mortality around the
globe impacting the health of the people. This has also caused disruption of food systems and that in turn
has caused national deficiency disorders in many parts of the world.
Climate change has also contributed to food-, water- and vector-borne diseases, which has increased the
load on already stressed health system. Also there have been reports of increased cases of mental health
issues because of wider impact of climate change in day to day lives.
Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per
year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress.
Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases through better transport, food and energy-use choices can result
in improved health, particularly through reduced air pollution. In the longer-term, the effects will
increasingly depend on the extent to which transformational action is taken now to reduce emissions and
avoid the breaching of dangerous temperature thresholds and potential irreversible tipping points. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that to avert catastrophic health
impacts and prevent millions of climate change-related deaths, the world must limit temperature rise to
1.5°C.
(Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60854-6)