[rad-green] The Climate Crisis Is A Public Health Emergency, New Report Warns

*https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/climate-change-public-health-lancet-report-2019_us_5dcc7016e4b03a7e02945049
<https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/climate-change-public-health-lancet-report-2019_us_5dcc7016e4b03a7e02945049?ri18n=true>HUFFINGTON
POST          11/13/2019*






*The Climate Crisis Is A Public Health Emergency, New Report
WarnsHeatwaves, drought, wildfires and infectious disease threaten to
undermine decades of gains in global public health.By Chris D'Angelo,
HuffPost US*

Climate change <https://www.huffpost.com/impact/topic/climate-change> is
already wreaking havoc on public health around the globe and the impacts
will continue to mount as the crisis fuels prolonged heatwaves, extreme
weather events and infectious disease, according to a new report
<http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32596-6/fulltext>
published
Wednesday by top medical journal The Lancet.

The Lancet Countdown is a comprehensive annual assessment tracking links
between climate change and human health. This year’s report outlines how
two potential emissions pathways ― business-as-usual and meeting the goals
of the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement ― will impact human
well-being. It finds that without immediate action to rein in greenhouse
gas emissions, climate change “will come to define the health of people at
every stage of their lives” and “challenge already overwhelmed health
systems.”

Renee Salas, an emergency medicine doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital
and lead author of an accompanying brief focused on U.S. impacts, told
reporters this week that the crisis is “one of the most pressing health
emergencies.”

“With every degree of warming, a child born today faces a future where
their health and well-being will be increasingly impacted by the realities
and dangers of a warmer world,” she said. “Climate change and the air
pollution from fossil fuels that are driving it threatens the child’s
health starting in the mother’s womb and only accumulates from there.”

The last four years were the four hottest on record
<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/climate-change-nasa-2018-hottest-year_n_5c5b06f5e4b087104759cdac>,
with 2018 coming in fourth behind 2016, 2015 and 2017. Globally, an
additional 220 million people age 65 or older were exposed to heatwaves
last year, topping the previous record of 209 million in 2015, according to
findings. Rising temperatures are having major implications on the global
labor force, resulting in an estimated 133.6 billion lost work hours in
2018 ― up from 88.5 billion in 2000.

Global warming has caused a spike in infectious disease, including the
mosquito-borne tropical virus dengue fever. According to the report, 9 of
the 10 most suitable years for the transmission of dengue have occurred
since 2000. Additionally, the number of days suitable for Vibrio, a
pathogen that can cause diarrheal disease and infection, have doubled since
the early 1980s. Children are among those most susceptible to such diseases.
[image: A municipal worker fumigates a store against the aedes aegypti
mosquito, vector of dengue fever, Zika...]
YURI CORTEZ VIA GETTY IMAGESA municipal worker fumigates a store against
the aedes aegypti mosquito, vector of dengue fever, Zika fever and
chikunguya, in Caracas, Venezuela.

The 48-page analysis also documents the increasing threat of wildfires and
the impact of climate change on crop yields. Seventy-seven percent of all
countries saw an increase in human exposures to wildfire between 2015 to
2018, compared to the period between 2001 and 2014. The potential health
effects from wildfires are extensive, from death and injury to respiratory
problems from smoke inhalation. Meanwhile, drought, extreme weather and
other factors have led to a decline in yield potential for major crops like
soybeans, rice and wheat, putting millions at risk for food insecurity and
nutrient deficiencies.

The number of premature deaths from ambient air pollution in in 2016
remained steady from 2015 to 2016, at an estimated 2.9 million globally.

Nick Watts, a medical doctor and executive director of Lancet Countdown,
noted that the global average life expectancy is 71 years, meaning a child
born today could by the end of their life experience a world that is 4
degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.

“We have no idea what that looks like from a public health perspective, but
we know it is catastrophic,” he said during a press call. “We know that it
has the potential to undermine the last 50 years of gains in public health.”

Here in the U.S., heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe,
according to the companion policy brief. This has led to an increase in
exposures among adults age 65 and older and an estimated 81.4 million lost
labor hours in 2018 alone, with agriculture and industry among the most
impacted sectors. Last year, 14 climate- and weather-related disasters in
the U.S. caused $91 billion in damages
<https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2018s-billion-dollar-disasters-context>,
the fourth-highest annual total since 1980. Those disasters include a
string of devastating wildfires in California and hurricanes Florence and
Michael.

Over 64,000 premature deaths in the U.S. in 2016 were linked to fine
particulate pollution.
[image: Forensic anthropologists Kyra Stull (L) and Tatiana Vlemincq walk
through a trailer park destroyed by...]
TERRAY SYLVESTER / REUTERSForensic anthropologists Kyra Stull (L) and
Tatiana Vlemincq walk through a trailer park destroyed by the Camp Fire in
Paradise, California, on Nov. 17, 2018.

Along with warning about the consequences of inaction, the report
alternatively lays out what could be gained by fulfilling the goals of the
Paris accord, which aims to stave off the worst impacts of climate change
by keeping the global temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius above
preindustrial levels. It notes that a child born today would see a complete
phase-out of coal in the United Kingdom by their sixth birthday and global
emissions reach net zero by the time they turn 31.

“The changes seen in this alternate pathway could result in cleaner air,
safer cities, and more nutritious food, coupled with renewed investment in
health systems and vital infrastructure,” the report states.

The assessment, which includes research from 35 academic institutions,
comes against a backdrop of massive youth-led protests to demand swift
climate action and growing calls in the United States for a Green New Deal,
an ambitious federal policy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The
surge in activism stems from a dire United Nations report late last year
that warned world governments had just 12 years to prevent potentially
irreversible climate change.

In a video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEVGNeneYug> posted last month
by independent film studio Rubber Republic, Richard Horton, the
editor-in-chief of The Lancet journal, said the world’s doctors and other
health professionals “have a responsibility, an obligation to engage in all
kinds of nonviolent, social protest to address the climate emergency.”

“Children are marching in the streets because they recognize that their
health and wellbeing and quality of life are being robbed,” Salas told
reporters this week.

“Acting on climate change is a prescription for health,” she said.

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