The focus on how climate change affects human health has become more acute as a result of the summer bushfires raging across Australia. More than 30 people have already lost their lives to bushfires this season, and numerous people have struggled with smoke inhalation and mental health issues.
One of the tragic effects of climate change highlighted in “Our Future on Earth, 2020,” a report released this month by Future Earth, an international sustainability research network, is the evolving nature of bushfires around the world.
Five global risks were identified by a survey of 222 eminent scientists from 52 different nations, which is included in the report.
failure of adaptation and mitigation to climate change.
severe weather conditions.
significant loss of biodiversity and ecosystem collapse.
Food shortages.
water problems.
They determined that these risks are the most dangerous in terms of how they will affect the welfare of human civilization and the state of the natural systems that it depends on both on a global scale and specifically.
Climate change could spark 'global systemic crisis'. Good writeup of @futureearth report on the state of the planet #OurFutureOnEarth Very proud to have contributed to it. I co-authored "Industrializing Disinformation" chapterhttps://t.co/wyRzfm6Piw https://t.co/VdKqmiB0qp
— owen gaffney (@owengaffney) February 8, 2020
The scientists specifically emphasized the danger that the interactions and feedback loops between these risks pose. In other words, each of these global risks exacerbates the others in ways that could cascade into a global systemic crisis.
For instance, the problem isn’t just bushfires; it also includes ecosystem degradation brought on by drought, biodiversity loss, floods, and bushfires.
Politicians occasionally have the tendency to think of them in isolation, as evidenced by their suggestion that the best way to combat bushfires is to merely clear the area of vegetation.
The report ultimately raises the question of whether or not humans will continue to flourish on Earth, and the answer depends on how quickly we can come together to reduce our impact.
Hopefully something positive will come out of this summer’s destructive bushfires. They may even assist in bringing home the urgent need for climate action. Future generations’ health and wellbeing rely on it.
It’s not all bad news in the report, though!
The report also discusses forced migration, food, oceans, politics, and media in addition to these global risks. The report doesn’t just list issues; it also emphasizes areas where advancements are being made, like in technology.
Many of the technologies currently in use are being used to encourage consumption in the name of economic growth rather than to protect ecosystems or advance just and equitable societies. The study also emphasizes how the digital industry has enormous potential for lowering emissions and enabling people to keep an eye on and safeguard ecosystems.
To improve energy efficiency and lower emissions in buildings, transportation, and industry, for example, digital technologies can be used. Additionally, new imaging techniques are providing satellite data to track illegal logging and deforestation, monitor forests in real-time, and monitor other environmental issues.
However, the “great acceleration” of economic growth during the second half of the 20th century has put a tremendous amount of strain on earth systems. Deforestation, biodiversity loss, and land degradation have been brought on by the rapid growth of large-scale agriculture and extensive mining in some areas.
By utilizing investments and financial tools for sustainable development, such as green bonds, sustainability-linked loans, and more, it is now possible to buck this trend.
relating crises by using health as a lens.
Consideration of human health is one means by which we can link the five global risks and address them all at once. For three specific reasons, policy-makers can benefit from a human health perspective on sustainable development.
The fact that extreme weather events are already having an adverse effect on health and are being amplified in frequency, intensity, and duration by climate change makes it clear that immediate action is required.
We are already observing health effects in Australia, so this is not a problem for the future. For weeks, the smoke from the fires has exposed about half of Australia’s population to dangerously high levels of air pollution. And the rising levels of anxiety related to bushfires worry mental health professionals.
The need for action is also made more urgent by health. For policymakers to be interested, there are powerful human stories about the loss of lives and livelihoods caused by environmental change. Real people in our neighborhood communities are impacted by this issue, making it a concrete environmental concern.
However, sustainable development transitions have some positive effects on health. For example, we can reduce the 7 million deaths caused by air pollution each year by two-thirds by 2030.
By viewing sustainable development issues through a health lens, policymakers can better understand the magnitude of the crises the world is currently experiencing.
Health in all countries.
Dr. Our Future on Earth was influenced by Gro Brundtland, who served as the World Commission on Environment and Development’s chair in 1987.
She explains that a key message from the 1987 report is still relevant.
Today, persuading nations of the importance of returning to multilateralism is our most pressing task.
To put it another way, foreigners’ health will affect Australians’ in the future. We are being reminded of the interdependence of all people on Earth by Dr. Brundtland.
This means that Australia should actively support the climate change provisions of the Paris Agreement. Due to the fact that air pollution from burning coal is a factor in more than 440,000 preventable deaths each year, we also need to carefully consider the effects on other nations’ health that our thermal coal exports may have.
A reminder of the interdependence of all species, including all animals, plants, and microorganisms, Dr. Brundtland’s call for multilateralism goes beyond just humans.
