Greater than leaving lasting damage to the natural environment, climate change can also be making human diseases worse, in keeping with a study.
Climate change just isn’t a latest problem. Because the initial connection between human activities and global warming within the late Nineteen Thirties, the scientific community has been spreading details about the rapid changes the planet is experiencing attributable to man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
A groundbreaking study published in Nature Climate Change has revealed that climate change has worsened diseases triggered by viruses, bacteria, animals, fungi and plants.
Conducted by researchers on the Mānoa’s University of Hawaii, the study analyzed over 70,000 scientific papers for examples of direct links between known diseases and global warming. Out of the 375 diseases analyzed, the team found that 218 were affected by climate change.
Specifically, the team found that climate change-related hazards – like ice precipitation, humid environments, and warmer temperatures – could bring pathogens closer to people. This favors the proliferation of ticks, mosquitoes, fleas, birds, and mammals liable for the spread of viruses and bacteria that cause Lyme disease, malaria, dengue, and the plague, to call just a few.
The researchers also found that extreme weather events attributable to climate change have resulted within the displacement and compelled migration of 1000’s of individuals on this planet’s most vulnerable parts, triggering more contact between humans and pathogens.
The changing weather can also be pushing the pathogens to adapt and develop into stronger, while added stress from unsafe living conditions and lack of access to healthcare has made the human immune system weaker.
“Given the extensive and pervasive consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was truly scary to find the large health vulnerability resulting as a consequence of greenhouse gas emissions,” said Camilo Mora, a study lead creator and geography professor within the College of Social Sciences.
The study also brought some positive news. For instance, some pathogens and viruses that couldn’t survive in warmer weather got reduced.
But this hardly balances out how much worse certain diseases have gotten, making it unlikely for humans to adapt in time.
“The world will need to cut back the greenhouse gas emissions which might be driving climate change to cut back these risks,” the authors concluded.