Climate problems are not limited to glaciers and weather changes; they are a matter of public health in general. Those most affected by the changes are children, the elderly, patients with chronic illnesses and people who work outdoors.
In 2008, at a congress in Barcelona, scientists published a report, “The Deadly Dozen: Wildlife Diseases in the Age of Climate Change,” which is trying to come true by leaps and bounds. Here, “climate change” refers to melting glaciers, rising sea levels, increasing precipitation and increasing average air temperatures. In 2019, Switzerland noted the emergence of diseases previously characteristic only of tropical latitudes. And the World Health Organization has already taken up the issue of protecting people’s health in the new conditions, according to the plan on climate change and health approved in 2015.
The food side of the issue will suffer first. Several aspects can be highlighted here: deterioration in the health of farm animals, the quality of fertile soils and drinking water. The result is malnutrition, growth retardation, and weakened immunity. Atmospheric air pollution causes complications of chronic diseases of the respiratory system and causes diseases of the immune and circulatory systems. The lengthening flowering period of plants increases the amount of pollen in the air, which contributes to the development of allergic diseases. Extremely high temperatures are another factor in increasing mortality.
Infectious diseases transmitted by ticks, midges and mosquitoes, such as tick-borne encephalitis, Lyme disease, malaria, dengue and West Nile fever; plague carried by fleas – all this may become our daily reality, due to the expanding habitat of insects and arachnids. Even more dangerous are diseases associated with water and not only drinking water. Cholera, infections that cause diarrhea and acute poisoning, spread best in humid and warm climates.
Finally, natural disasters: floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions cause not only loss of life, but also serious mental trauma, and an increase in the incidence of dysentery and acute intestinal diseases due to the destruction of life support systems in populated areas.
Some climatologists claim that the spread of Ebola and Covid-19 is directly dependent on climate change.