Climate ‘a health threat’
CLIMATE Change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity, causing adverse reproductive outcomes such as preterm birth, low birth weight, and lower sperm production.
This, according to The 10 New Insights in Climate Science report launched at COP27 currently in progress at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The report read heat exposure caused by climate change has resulted in adverse reproductive outcomes.
The study was put together by a team of international experts from the natural and social sciences and launched by Future Earth, The Earth League and World Climate Research Programme.
The report stated the World Health Organization has described climate change as the “single biggest health threat facing humanity”.
“Research consistently reveals compounding and cascading risks of climate change on human, animal and environmental health,” the report stated.
“These risks have the potential to slow advances made in population health over the last decades and disrupt functioning health systems.
“Climate change, according to the report, was already responsible for 37 per cent of heat-related deaths globally between 1991 to 2018 – with the burden likely exacerbated by recent 2022 heat waves that exceeded temperature records.
“In the meantime, every inhabited continent is experiencing increased heat-related mortality.
“Most attribution studies likely underestimate the numbers of deaths, illnesses, hours of lost productivity, and adverse economic consequences.
“Some regions, such as mountainous areas, are newly experiencing heat waves, with dire implications for their populations.
“The observed increase in ‘tropical nights’ exposes more people to heat stress because of the reduction in cooling respite.”
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