Climate concerns
Experts fear crisis will bring increase in infectious diseases and become the defining threat of the 21st Century
We Scots are well used to the plague of midges that can often blight our enjoyment of summer.
Now we may have to adjust to a more serious threat. The climate crisis has emerged as a critical factor in the spread of deadly infectious diseases, posing significant health risks to global populations.
Rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and extreme weather events driven by climate change have created ideal conditions for the proliferation and transmission of infectious organisms that cause disease in humans, including viruses, bacteria and parasites. There is even a risk that malaria
could soon be a disease hazard in Scotland.
Researchers at Glasgow University have been awarded a £1.25 million grant to investigate how climate change could increase the risk of the mosquito-borne disease in this country.
Their three-year research programme in collaboration with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, will examine the menace of mosquitoborne pathogens emerging in Scotland for the first time, because of changes in our weather patterns.
Malaria was endemic in America until the 1950s but was considered eliminated by 1951. Now, the first cases of homegrown malaria in years have been reported in
Texas, Florida and Maryland. Its re-emergence has been blamed on climate change. It is feared the same thing may happen here.
The Westminster government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has launched a £7 million package that will also investigate diseases caused by ticks, fleas and lice, which are thriving in the increasingly warm and wet conditions in Scotland.
Following the Covid pandemic that took 10,000 lives in Scotland, the dual challenge posed by climate change and the spread of infectious diseases is of great concern.
Globally, the impact of climate change on the behaviour of animals is evident. As temperatures rise, the thick ice in the Arctic is melting and minke, bottlenose, fin and sperm whales are heading north for the first time, just as grizzly bears, whitetailed deer, coyotes and other animals and birds head south.
This spring, osprey and puffins have arrived in Scotland a week earlier than ever before.
New types of beetle have headed northwards in the warmer conditions, causing devastation to Siberian forests, while new ticks have caused problems with Alaskan mammals and new insects are plaguing humans in northern Norway.
Diseases are now killing reindeer in Scandinavia and Russia, musk oxen in Arctic Canada, and polar bears and seals off the coast of Alaska, where temperatures have risen by 4C in the past 60 years. Strange new pests have appeared on maize crops in Malawi and a new bacteria has caused the fruit of lemon trees to shrivel in Florida.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that despite the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change may now become the defining global threat to public health of the 21st Century.
Human illnesses caused by parasites, viruses and bacteria that are transmitted by mosquitoes, ticks and other vectors in warmer and wetter environments, spread infections like malaria, dengue fever, Zika virus and Lyme disease beyond their traditional geographic boundaries.
At the same time, wildlife hosts, like the species of bat many claim was the origin of Covid-19, are affected by rising temperatures and extreme weather events, displacing them to new areas.
Increased rain can cause flooding and this can lead to the overflow of sewage systems, contaminating rivers and freshwater sources with human faeces, spreading water-borne diseases like cholera and cryptosporidiosis, a particularly nasty illness that causes diarrhoea and stomach pains.
According to the WHO, Dengue fever will become a major threat in southern Europe, the southern US and new, previously unaffected parts of Africa this decade.
The illness has long been a scourge in much of Asia and Latin America, causing an estimated 20,000 deaths every year. But rates of the disease have already risen eight-fold globally since 2000, driven largely by climate change as well as the increased movement of people and urbanisation.
Meanwhile, those families planning hill-walks and spring or summer picnics in Scotland, may be wise to wear clothing that covers their arms and legs, to protect them from tick bites that can cause Lyme disease.
Researchers predict the rise in global temperatures will increase that risk.
The Highlands and Tayside are thought to be particularly impacted, although there are areas of forestry and grassland in many parts of Scotland where infected ticks can be found. Lyme disease can cause joint and muscle pains, abnormal tiredness, persistent headaches and palpitations.
The tick season is starting earlier and, with more active ticks, this means the number of bites is going up and with it, tick-borne diseases. Anyone finding a tick attached to their skin should remove it carefully with tweezers as quickly as possible.
Extreme weather events are also a risk to health. The increasing prevalence of wildfires, caused by prolonged droughts and higher temperatures, can release dust particles and toxic pollutants into the air, increasing the risk of respiratory infections.
The prolonged warm, dry and windy weather last summer caused a wildfire near Cannich in the Highlands, that burned an area of more than 30 square miles, with plumes of smoke that were detected from space by Nasa satellites. Firefighters said it was the largest wildfire ever recorded in the UK.
Last month was the warmest March on record. António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-general told the Cop27 summit in Egypt: “Our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible.
“We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”
As we reflect on his words, we may yet come to realise that the Scottish midge is the least of our problems. Struan Stevenson represented Scotland in the European Parliament from 1999 to 2014. He was President of the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee from 2002-2004 and President of the Climate Change and Sustainable Development Intergroup from 20042014. He is a Director of the European Bureau for Conservation & Development (EBCD) in Belgium.
The headline almost made me choke on my homemade granola: “Rishi Sunak remains optimistic despite ‘disappointing’ local elections for Tories.” In what topsyturvy alternate universe is the prime minister living in if he genuinely feels upbeat about his party’s prospects in the general election?
They were all at it though, so enthusiastically optimistic with their hot takes about the terrible situation, that they made Pollyanna look like Debbie Downer. The Transport Secretary Mark Harper told an incredulous Trevor Phillips on Sky News that “the polls are not correct, there is everything to fight for, and the Conservative Party under the prime minister’s leadership is up for that fight”.
Whatever gets them through the night. Truly, optimism is a powerful emotion. When things are tough, why not look on the bright side? You can’t help but admire the child who comes out of an exam saying “I smashed it”, only to find out three months later they failed abysmally. There is something very life affirming about that kind of attitude.
I think that’s why the TV series Ted Lasso is such a hit. Ted’s trademark cheerfulness as he tries to turn around the fortunes of a struggling premier league football team obviously strikes a chord with an audience looking for something kinder. After all, there is only so much grisly true crime you can watch.
In the face of torrents of abuse about his capacity to coach a game of which he has no experience, Ted remains stoical and, yes, optimistic. And, of course, he turns things around with the sheer force of his unrelenting positivity. He comes out with gems like
“I do love a locker room, it smells like potential” and “yes, I believe in ghosts, but more importantly they have to believe in themselves”. It’s genius.
Maybe we all need to be a bit more Ted. And it could be good for your health too. People who have a rosy outlook on the world might actually live healthier, longer lives because they have fewer stressful events to cope with, according to scientific research. That’s brilliant news and makes me feel hopeful. See, it’s working already.
There are even online tutorials to help make you a more positive person. A visualisation exercise called ‘Best Possible Self’ encourages you to imagine a future where you achieve all your goals and have become the person you always wanted to be. Therapists say this is a really effective way to change your mindset.
I tried it and then just felt depressed at the thought of trying to fulfil these, quite frankly unrealistic, dreams that I’d written down in a surge of optimism: I doubt I will ever write that best-selling novel and the chances of me becoming a trophy lifting champion jockey are tiny to non-existent.
And therein lies the problem – “Optimists are stupid” my husband says, “because they don’t realise the s*** we’re all in.” Honestly, it’s like living with Eeyore. But maybe he has a point.
To survive all the stuff that’s thrown at us, humans have developed something called optimism bias that makes us think that everything will work out just fine, when reality suggests that really isn’t going be the case. It’s how we cope, but it can be dangerous.
Like climbing a mountain in terrible weather without a waterproof, fingers crossed that the weather will improve. We live in Scotland. It won’t.
And it’s a sure-fire recipe for disappointment – like me hoping the dishwasher will have been emptied when I come down to the kitchen in the morning. Only to have my hopes dashed, time after time. After time.
I’ve started following an author called Dave Tarnowski on Instagram in a bid to keep my groundless optimism in check. His account is called Disappointing Affirmations and he advises his 2.2 million fans to “unfollow their dreams”.
His daily posts offer gloomy quotes like “You will not be okay. You have never been okay. Why would that ever change?” and, even more depressingly, “Stop worrying if you’ll ever truly be happy. You won’t.”
Perhaps they’re the icy shots of realism we all need.
You might have heard of Daniel Rooney, the singer plucked from obscurity to support Take That at Glasgow’s Hydro. If you haven’t, I’m sure you will soon. The 26-year-old came on Scotland Tonight on Wednesday to tell us about his big break – it really is the stuff dreams are made of.
After a whirlwind round of media interviews since his performance on Friday last week, he’s preparing to release his first single. He played it in the studio and I nodded along like a proud mum. He’s riding the crest of a wave and I really hope he becomes a star.