Unforeseen consequences

Climate change is increasingly endangering our health

Lack of sleep, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases - the potpourri of illnesses exacerbated by climate change is enormous.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

It has long been proven that climate change does not have a particularly positive effect on our health. While the consequences of drought and extreme weather increase the risk of food insecurity and infectious diseases, there are also some consequences that many have not yet taken into account.

The number of hours of sleep lost due to high temperatures, for example, increased by five percent between 1986 and 2005 and between 2019 and 2023, as reported by a research team in the journal The Lancet. A lack of sleep can lead to concentration and memory problems in the short term and increase the risk of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, among other things.

According to the report, droughts and heatwaves have led to 151 million more people being affected by moderate or severe food insecurity on average in 2022 in 124 countries surveyed than in the period from 1981 to 2010.

Extreme weather becoming more frequent
Almost half of the global land area (48%) experienced at least one month of extreme drought last year. This is only two percent less than the previous record set in 2020, if we look back since around 1950. Increased extreme rainfall and hurricanes led to flooding, infectious diseases and water pollution, according to the "Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change".

Deadly infectious diseases on the rise
Another danger favored by climate change is the transmission of potentially fatal infectious diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, West Nile fever and vibrio infections. Higher temperatures in temperate latitudes are exposing more and more people in previously unaffected areas to the risk of transmission.

The team of more than 120 experts led by Marina Romanello from the Institute for Global Health at University College London compiled numerous study results and climate data for the report in the run-up to the 29th World Climate Conference (COP29) in Baku (Azerbaijan) in November.

"This year's report not only reveals the inadequacy of adaptation efforts to date, but also shows a world that is deviating from the goal of limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees," writes the group. "No person and no economy on this planet is immune to the health risks of climate change," Romanello warned.

Climate change will be a major cost factor
According to calculations by researchers, 512 billion working hours could not be performed in 2023 due to excessive heat, which also meant a loss of earnings for many workers. This particularly affected people in poor countries: There, the hours not worked accounted for 7.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) - in rich countries it was only 0.5 percent.

According to the report, the average annual economic losses due to weather-related extreme events increased by almost a quarter (23%) to 227 billion US dollars (around 211 billion euros) between 2014 and 2023.

Health and survival of millions at stake
Currently, the possibilities for climate protection measures are often severely limited by the lack of financial resources, while in 2023 almost 37 percent of global energy investments still went into fossil fuels. In many countries, subsidies far exceed national health spending.

"Oil and gas companies - supported by many governments and the global financial system - continue to increase the world's dependence on fossil fuels," said co-author Stella Hartinger from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. The health and survival of millions of people are being put at risk.