MADRID, April 5 (IPS) – As the world’s leading scientists and experts continue their arduous work to finally submit to politicians at the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties ( COP 27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt (November 7-18) 2022), a new warning has emerged: the climate crisis has become the biggest health threat facing humanity.
But this new warning should come as no surprise: it constitutes the logic, the expected consequence of the growing pressure on natural resources to keep and save lives.
No wonder: there are so many chemicals, lead, mercury, microplastics and a long layer of veining, that poison the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the oceans, the soil, forests, indispensable biodiversity and now also the world’s great water reserves at both the North and South poles.
Some of these consequences are visible – though unlikely to be seen: destructive floods, deadly droughts, unprecedented heat waves, Earth’s lungs suffocating, biodiversity is lost. And there is an increased risk of zoonotic and zoonotic diseases.
This year World Health Day, marked April 7, issues a new warning. In fact World Health Organization (WHO .)) estimate that more than 13 million deaths worldwide each year are due to “avoidable environmental causes”.
This includes the climate crisis as “the single greatest health threat facing humanity.” “The climate crisis is also a health crisis.”
Impacts
The World Agency reminds of the following events:
- More than 90% of people breathe unhealthy air due to burning fossil fuels.
- Planetary pollution increases diseases such as cancer, asthma, heart disease.
- A warming world is seeing disease-spreading mosquitoes spread more widely and faster than ever before.
- Extreme weather events, land degradation and water scarcity are displacing people and affecting their health.
- Pollution and plastic are found in the deepest ocean floors, the highest mountains, and have entered our food chain.
- Unhealthy, highly processed food and beverage production systems are driving waves of obesity, increasing cancer and heart disease, and generating a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.
- Floods can cause poisoning
- Climate change makes wildfires more likely
- Above 40 degrees Celsius, heat stroke can occur, causing organ failure and even death
- Wildfires can cause death and injury by suffocation.
- Wildfires can cause trauma affecting mental health
- Climate change is making floods more dangerous
- Animal-to-human diseases – diseases that can spread between animals and humans – continue to have a major impact on human health. Every year, nearly 60,000 people die from rabies, and other zoonotic diseases such as bird flu, Ebola or Rift Valley fever become additional threats.
2 billion people lack safe drinking water globally and 3.6 billion people lack safe toilets. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / IPS
Half of humanity has lived in the danger zone
Despite these and other dangers, the world can clearly see doing too little, not almost nothing. In fact, the goal of limiting future warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is outlined in Paris Agreement about climate change and driving home last November COP26gathered in Glasgow, currently on “life support” and “in intensive care”, the head of the UN told The Economists Sustainability Summit on March 21, 2022.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres emphasize some progress was made at COP 26 last year but pointed out the “huge emissions gap” conceding that “the main problem remains unresolved – it is not even properly solved”.
Worse
However, under current country commitments, global emissions will increase by almost 14% over the rest of the decade. Last year alone, global energy-related CO2 emissions jumped 6% “to an all-time high”, Guterres said, as coal emissions rose “to a record high”.
With the planet warming up to 1.2 degrees, and where climate disasters have forced 30 million people from their homes, Guterres alert: “We’re sleepwalking in the face of a climate catastrophe.”
“This is madness”
The head of the United Nations said, if we don’t want to “kiss goodbye 1.5 times… we need to go to the source – the G20” (the group of leading industrialized nations).
Noting that developed and emerging G20 economies account for 80% of total global emissions, he draws attention to a heavy reliance on coal but emphasizes that “our planet cannot bear it.” a climate blame game”.
“Countries can become so over-consumptive because of an immediate shortage of fossil fuel supplies that they ignore or ignore policies that cut fossil fuel use,” Guterres noted.
As reliance on fossil fuels continues to expose the global economy and energy security to geopolitical shocks and crises, “the deadline to cut emissions by 45% is extremely tight.” .
There’s no cure in sight
Despite all the possible remedies indicated by the world scientific community – and the visible effects of the ongoing climate emergency – there is still no real cure. what is in sight.
See what’s at stake:
Politicians subsidize fossil fuels with six trillion dollars in just one year. In fact, they have spent such a huge amount – $6 trillion – from taxpayers’ money to subsidizing fossil fuels in just one: 2020. And they are expected to increase the number to nearly 7 trillion by 2025.
More than that, governments are going to double down on energy production from these very, very dangerous global warming generators.
Carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, accounting for about 66% of the warming effect on the climate, mainly due to fossil fuel combustion and cement production.
Yes more deadly gas and less, sink weaker
With a million species at stake, lives are in danger of extinction
Half of the world’s population, affected by floods, storms, and tsunamis, by 2030
“Earth’s kidney” is disappearing, such as Wetlands, are seen as the natural solution to the global threat of climate change. They absorb carbon dioxide, which helps to slow global warming and reduce pollution, hence why they are often referred to as “The Kidneys of the Earth”. Specifically, peatlands alone store twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests combined.
The projection indicates that there will be a severe water stress, absolute scarcity for 2 to 4 billion people by 2025
While, The pernicious march of salt and plastic continues unabated across the world’s soils
And there is another major consequence: millions of people are trying to escape the devastating impact of the climate crisis, leaving their homes as migrants and refugees. What will Europe, the United States, do with a billion climate refugees?
Pandemic driven by climate change
If all of the above wasn’t enough, also know that the World Health Organization has just launched a global bug eradication plan to prevent new pandemics, which are attributed to climate change.
The plan aims to stop the spread of mosquito-borne diseases – known as “viruses” – that threaten more than half of the world’s population. And the main goal of the initiative is four of the most common viruses: Dengue, Yellow Fever, Chikungunya and Zika.
The World Health Organization poses some of the right questions: Can we reimagine a world where clean air, water and food are available to everyone? Where are the economies focused on health and happiness? Where are cities livable and people have control over their health and the health of the planet?
It’s up to you to judge!
© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
