Editorial - (2021) Volume 9, Issue 6
According to a big global study, a child born today faces multiple and life-long health hazards as a result of climate change, including growing up in a warmer environment with risks of food shortages, infectious diseases, floods, and high temperatures. According to a study published in The Lancet medical journal, climate warming is already affecting people's health by increasing the number of extreme weather events and intensifying air pollution. If nothing is done to alleviate the effects, an entire generation could be burdened with disease and illness for the rest of their lives.
Children are especially exposed to the health dangers posed by climate change. Their bodies and immune systems are still developing, making children more vulnerable to disease and pollution, according to Nick Watts, co-author of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report.
He warned that early childhood health impairment is "persistent and ubiquitous" and has long-term implications.
“If all countries do not take quick action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improvements in wellbeing and life expectancy will be jeopardized, and climate change will come to define the health of an entire generation,” he said at a London briefing.
However, the research teams believe that enacting regulations to control emissions and prevent global warming would result in a different conclusion.
In that scenario, a kid born today would witness the end of coal use in the United Kingdom by the age of six, and the globe reaching net-zero emissions by the age of thirty-one.
The World Health Organization, the World Bank, University College London, and China's Tsinghua University collaborated in the Lancet study, which included 120 specialists from 35 institutions.
It found that under a “business-as-usual” scenario, with little action to limit climate change, children would be vulnerable to malnutrition and rising food prices, as well as the most likely to suffer from warmer waters and climates hastening the spread of infectious diseases like dengue fever and cholera.
According to the experts, air pollution is one of the most urgent and long-term health hazards posed by climate change.
They demanded immediate action to reduce outdoor and interior pollution by introducing cleaner fuels and cars, as well as regulations that promote safe and active transportation such as walking and cycling.
According to the World Health Organization, household and ambient air pollution caused 7 million deaths worldwide in 2016. The bulk of incidents occurred in low-and middle-income countries. “If we want to protect our children, we must ensure that the air they breathe is not toxic,” said Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson, a global health specialist at Sussex University in the United Kingdom who worked on the Lancet study.
Citation: Julie J (2021) Climate change exposes future generations to life-long health harm. J Climatol Weather Forecast. 9:293.
Received: 02-Jun-2021 Published: 22-Jun-2021, DOI: 10.35248/2332-2594.21.9.293
Copyright: © 2021 Julie J. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
