The consensus among scientists is that we are in an era of global heating and extreme weather events, primarily due to the devastating effects of human action on the environment. Why are researchers concerned, and what are the implications for health?
The Lancet Countdown team is a group of over 120 leading experts on climate, public health, economy, and political science — among others — who have committed to monitoring climate change, particularly its impact on global health.Since 2015, the year of the Paris Agreement, the experts affiliated with the Lancet Countdown commission have published yearly reports
Trusted Sourcassessing this situation and keeping signatory governments and decision-makers accountable for the commitments they have taken on following the Agreement.The latest report, which appeared in The Lancet
Trusted Sourcein October 2021, records “deepening inequities” across all regions as global heating remains a concern. The report discusses the impact of climate change in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it emphasizes the concern caused by extreme heat events and related natural disasters that have occurred over the past 2 years.
Among the issues outlined in the Lancet Countdown report 2021, there is the impact of climate change on the livelihood of communities around the world, its direct and indirect effect on mental and physical health, and the way in which it contributes to the spread of infectious diseases.
These findings largely coincide with those outlined by another set of landmark reports on climate change — those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
According to the IPCC 2022 reports, at present, extreme weather events caused by human action are surpassing the resilience of some ecological and human systems, sometimes with irreversible effects.
The reports show that weather extremes related to climate change have affected the productivity of various food sectors — including agricultural, forestry, and fishery sectors — around the world, thus exacerbating food insecurity.
They also emphasize the impact of climate change on mental health, and the ways in which it contributes to the spread of vector-borne communicable Pathways to recovery? ‘Treat climate change as a health issue’
It is increasingly clear that human health and the health of our global environments are crucially interconnected, and that we cannot have one without the other.
Yet, the Lancet Commission 2021 report found governments and decision-makers lacking in their efforts to stop climate change and mitigate its negative impacts.
“Governments with the fiscal capacity have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with massive spending packages, to cushion the impacts of the crisis and start to bring about economic recovery. But […] the response to climate change, and commensurate investment, remains inadequate,” it concludes.
“With government leaders more engaged with the health dimensions of climate change than ever before, countries across the globe should pursue low-carbon economic recovery pathways, implementing policies that reduce inequities and improve human health,” its authors advise.
And there are also smaller-scale steps that organizations and health services can take to pull their weight in terms of becoming more eco-friendly, according to Prof. Pencheon and Dr. Romanello.
“One of the things [health systems should do] is to realize that health systems are big medical-industrial complexes, and they are themselves part of the problem. Health services are essentially rescue services, […] really. So we’ve got to get our own house in order,” said Prof. Pencheon.
According to him, health services could help set the tone in terms of how we address the climate crisis, and how we understand its effect on public health.
“[I] f we treat climate change as a health issue, and not just as an environmental issue, it makes it much more immediate to everybody.”
– Prof. David Pencheon
Dr. Romanello agreed. “It is fundamentally a health crisis that we have [on] our hands,” she emphasized, explaining that “much of what we talk about when we talk about climate change action [and] climate change mitigation has to do with healthier lifestyles, with reducing the burden of disease through more physical activity, through healthier, more plant-based diets, through reduced exposure to air pollution and other environmental determinants that damage our health.”
“[B]y increasing communication from the health system, by promoting healthier lifestyles, we on the one hand promote behavior shifts that determine
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