Climate change

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Context:

Editors of more than 220 leading health journals from all over the world have published a joint editorial asking governments to take immediate and more ambitious climate action to hold global temperatures from rising beyond 1.5°C from pre-industrial times.
The editors have urged governments to treat climate change with the same kind of urgency that was shown in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
It highlighted the escalating health impacts of climate change, that affect the most vulnerable, including children, older populations, ethnic minorities, poorer communities, and those with underlying health problems”.

Why Climate change is a cause of concern?

Climate change has several adverse health impacts, both direct and indirect.
Heat-related diseases triggered by extreme heat events, which are on the rise because of changing climate, are an example of direct health impacts of climate change.
Changing crop patterns, declining yields, water scarcity, and extreme precipitation are expected to have health consequences as well.
Food shortages and resultant malnutrition are considered major side-effects of rising temperatures.
The World Health Organization estimates that about 250,000 excess deaths are likely to be caused by climate change-induced factors — malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, and heat stress — between 2030 and 2050.
Higher temperatures have led to “increased dehydration and renal function loss, dermatological malignancies, tropical infections, adverse mental health outcomes, pregnancy complications, allergies, and cardiovascular and pulmonary morbidity and mortality”.