Still Time to Thwart Health Effects of Climate Change, but Clock Is Ticking

As the globe sees more rising temperatures, flooding, and wildfires, the impacts of climate change on human health will become more dire for millions, according to a new report.

In a review published by the Lancet, public health leaders and climate scientists outlined how increases in heat, extreme weather events, infectious diseases, and food insecurity have already caused detriments to human health. But as climate change continues on its trajectory, those impacts will only get worse -- and continue to make health inequities even more stark.

Governments are spending trillions of dollars in COVID-19 recovery, presenting an opportunity to merge economic repair efforts with climate mitigation, the report stated. But many recovery plans threaten to reverse climate progress, as only 18% of global funds allocated to pandemic recovery are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"We are recovering from a health crisis in a way that's putting our health at risk," said the lead author of the report, Marina Romanello, PhD, of the Institute for Global Health, University College London in a statement.

"It's time to realize that no one is safe from the effects of climate change," Romanello added. "As we recover from COVID-19 we still have the time to take a different path and create a healthier future for us all."

The report, published by the Lancet Countdown, follows recent calls from the medical community to take urgent climate action. In an unprecedented move, more than 200 public health and medical journals published an editorial last month, stating that healthcare practitioners "have an obligation not only to anticipate new healthcare needs but also to be active participants in limiting the causes of the climate crisis."

The Lancet Countdown report outlined 44 indicators assessing health impacts of the climate emergency, covering topics such as climate change exposures, costs, and involvement from governments and corporations. The sixth annual report was released ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), which will take place in Scotland later this month.

In an accompanying editorial, Lancet editors wrote that "the world is watching COP26 -- widely perceived as the last and best opportunity to reset the path to global net zero carbon emissions by 2050 -- and public interest in climate change is higher than ever, in part due to global youth activism and engagement."

But the editors added that "this year's indicators give a bleak outlook: global inequities are increasing, and the direction of travel is worsening all health outcomes."

Last year, adults over 65 were exposed to 3 billion more days of extreme heat than they were from the 1986 to 2005 baseline average, the researchers found. Extreme heat in the Pacific Northwest and Canada last summer caused more than 1,000 deaths -- an event that would have been almost impossible without human-induced climate change, the researchers said.

Climate change has also put nearly 570 million people living close to sea level at risk of increased flooding and storms, forcing many to migrate inland. Warming temperatures have created ideal environments for the transmission of climate-sensitive infectious diseases, including Zika, chikungunya, and cholera.

The report also outlined the ability of climate change to accelerate food insecurity, which affected more than 2 billion people in 2019. Rising temperatures have affected agricultural production, lessening crop yields and putting an increased strain on food supply. In 2020, up to 19% of the global land surface experienced extreme drought in any given month -- a value that did not exceed 13% between 1950 and 1999.

Of the 84 countries reviewed by Lancet Countdown researchers -- which contributed to 92% of global carbon dioxide emissions, 65 were still using public funds to subsidize fossil fuels as of 2018, the researchers noted. As governments commit funding to the pandemic recovery, the report urged public leaders and policymakers to use funds to reduce inequities.

Although the Lancet editors stated that these findings provide a "bleak outlook," they added that the future is not hopeless.

"The key message is that the world needs a new era of research that is less focused on forecasts for climate change, and more on predictions of the societal consequences of future warming and how to weather them," the editorial stated. "Succumbing to the climate emergency is not inevitable."

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