Overwhelming evidence shows that climate change presents growing threats to public health security – from extreme weather-related disasters to the wider spread of such vector-borne diseases as malaria and dengue.
The impacts of climate on human health will not be evenly distributed around the world. The Third Assessment Report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-2001) concluded that vulnerability to climate change is a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Developing country populations, particularly in small island states, arid and high mountain zones, and in densely populated coastal areas are considered to be particularly vulnerable.
India is a large developing country, with the Great Himalayas, the world’s third largest ice mass in the north, 7500 km long, and a densely populated coastline in the south. Nearly 700 million of her over one billion population living in rural areas directly depend on climate-sensitive sectors (agriculture, forests, and fisheries) and natural resources (such as water, biodiversity, mangroves, coastal zones, and grasslands) for their subsistence and livelihoods.
Heat waves, floods (land and coastal), and droughts occur commonly. Malaria, malnutrition, and diarrhoea are major public health problems. Any further increase, as projected in weather-related disasters and related health effects, may cripple the already inadequate public health infrastructure in the country.
Hence, there is an urgent need to respond to the situation. Response options to protect health from the effects of climate change include mitigation as well as adaptation. Both can complement each other and together can significantly reduce the risks of climate change.
Climate change is a significant and emerging threat to public health. Hence, it is finding an increasingly central position on the international agenda as most recently evidenced by the Nobel Prize awarded to the former US Vice President, Al Gore, and a team of UN experts under the chairmanship of Dr Rajendra K. Pachauri (Director General, The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi) for their work on the subject.
In 2008, the World Health Organization (WHO) focused on the need to protect health from the adverse effects of climate change. The World Health Day – 2008 theme “Protecting health from climate change” raises the profile of health dangers posed by global climate variability and change. It was selected because overwhelming evidence shows that climate change presents growing threats to international public health security.
IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON HUMAN HEALTH
Our personal health may seem to relate mostly to prudent behaviour, heredity, occupation, local environmental exposures, and healthcare access, but sustained population health requires the life-supporting “services” of the biosphere. Populations of all animal species depend on supplies of food and water, freedom from excess infectious disease, and the physical safety and comfort conferred by climatic stability. The world’s climate system is fundamental to this life support. A changing climate is likely to affect all these conditions and hence have a powerful impact on human health and well-being.
WHY SHOULD INDIA BE CONCERNED ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING?
The Third Assessment Report (IPCC-2001) concluded that vulnerability to climate change is a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. India is a large developing country, with the Great Himalayas, the world’s third largest ice mass in the north, 7500 km long, and a densely populated coastline in the south.
Nearly 700 million of her one billion population living in rural areas directly depend on climate-sensitive sectors (agriculture, forests, and fisheries) and natural resources (such as water, biodiversity, mangroves, coastal zones, and grasslands) for their subsistence and livelihoods.
Climate change already contributes to the global burden of disease and this contribution is expected to grow in the future. Approximately 600,000 deaths occurred worldwide as a result of weather-related natural disasters in the 1990s, some 95% of which took place in developing countries.
The WHO estimated that climate change directly or indirectly contributes to about 77,000 deaths annually in Asia and the Pacific, about half of the world total attributed to climate change.
The impacts of climate on human health will not be evenly distributed around the world. Developing country populations, particularly in small island states, arid and high mountain zones, and in densely populated coastal areas, are considered to be particularly vulnerable.