Monthly Archives: January 2016

Climate Change is a ‘Medical Emergency’ experts warn

NASA, NOAA Analyses Reveal Record-Shattering Global Warm Temperatures in 2015

NASA, NOAA Analyses Reveal Record-Shattering Global Warm Temperatures in 2015. 2015 was the warmest year since modern record-keeping began in 1880, according to a new analysis by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The record-breaking year continues a long-term warming trend — 15 of the 16 warmest years on record have now occurred since 2001

According to the 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change, the threat to human health from climate change is so great that it could undermine the last 50 years of gains in development and global health.

Extreme weather events such as floods and heat waves bring rising risks of infectious diseases, poor nutrition and stress, the specialists said, while polluted cities where people work long hours and have no time or space to walk, cycle or relax are bad for the heart as well as respiratory and mental health.

Almost 200 countries have set a 2 degrees C global average temperature rise above pre-industrial times as a ceiling to limit climate change, but scientists say the current trajectory could lead to around a 4 degrees C rise in average temperatures, risking droughts, floods, storms and rising sea levels.

“That has very serious and potentially catastrophic effects for human health and human survival,” said Anthony Costello, director of University College London’s (UCL) Institute for Global Health, who co-led the report. “We see climate change as a major health issue, and that’s often neglected in policy debates,” he told reporters at a briefing in London. The report, commissioned and published by The Lancet medical journal, was compiled by a panel of specialists including European and Chinese climate scientists and geographers, social, environmental and energy scientists, biodiversity experts and health professionals.

It said that because responses to mitigate climate change have direct and indirect health benefits – from reducing air pollution to improving diet – a concerted effort would also provide a great opportunity to improve global health.

The report said direct health impacts of climate change come from more frequent and intense extreme weather events, while indirect impacts come from changes in infectious disease patterns, air pollution, food insecurity and malnutrition, displacement and conflicts.

“Climate Change is a medical emergency,” said Hugh Montgomery, director of UCL’s institute for human health and performance and a co-author on the report. “It demands an emergency response using technologies available right now.”

The panel said there were already numerous ways to bring about immediate health gains with action on climate change.

Burning fewer fossil fuels reduces respiratory diseases, for example, and getting people walking and cycling more cuts pollution, road accidents and rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. 

Cardiovascular disease is the world’s number one killer, leading to some 17 million deaths a year, according to World Health Organization data.

“There’s a big (energy) saving in people using calories to get around, and there are some immediate gains from more active lifestyles,” Montgomery said.

The commission also recommended the creation of a new global independent body with the task of monitoring climate change and global health. This coalition would report every two years on the health effects of climate change, track the progress of policies designed to mitigate climate change and make new suggestions on how to further adapt to climate change and implement low-carbon, sustainable health systems.

SOURCE: The Lancet, news release, June 22, 2015

WHO Shock figures to reveal deadly toll of global air pollution

smog central london

Smog in central London in 2011. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

The World Health Organisation has issued a stark new warning about deadly levels of pollution in many of the world’s biggest cities, claiming poor air quality is killing millions and threatening to overwhelm health services across the globe.

Before the release next month of figures that will show air pollution has worsened since 2014 in hundreds of already blighted urban areas, the WHO says there is now a global “public health emergency” that will have untold financial implications for governments.

The latest data, taken from 2,000 cities, will show further deterioration in many places as populations have grown, leaving large areas under clouds of smog created by a mix of transport fumes, construction dust, toxic gases from power generation and wood burning in homes.

“We have a public health emergency in many countries from pollution. It’s dramatic, one of the biggest problems we are facing globally, with horrible future costs to society,” said Maria Neira, head of public health at the WHO, which is a specialist agency of the United Nations. “Air pollution leads to chronic diseases which require hospital space. Before, we knew that pollution was responsible for diseases like pneumonia and asthma. Now we know that it leads to bloodstream, heart and cardiovascular diseases, too – even dementia. We are storing up problems. These are chronic diseases that require hospital beds. The cost will be enormous,” said Neira.

The latest scientific research, published in the journal Nature, suggests that air pollution now kills more people a year than malaria and HIV combined, and in many countries accounts for roughly 10 times more deaths than road accidents.

According to the WHO, air quality is deteriorating around the world to the point where only one in eight people live in cities that meet recommended air pollution levels.

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd