The authors of a new important report, Lancet Countdown, warn that climate change should be declared a global health emergency, as its effects intensify faster than actions to address them.
They call on the World Health Organization, O The U.S. and the United Nations officially announce climate change to a global health emergency.
They argue that a formal definition of the emergency situation would shift global climate action from slow and voluntary commitment to a mandatory and coordinated emergency management.
This would lead to strengthening health supervision and early warning systems, rapid mobilization of resources, establishing legally binding accountability mechanisms and introducing preventive public health measures. One measure, they consider, would reflect the degree of threat.
As populations grow older and grow older, more people are in danger today than a decade ago, further increasing the scale and urgency of adaptive duty, the authors wrote.
The report shows that the entry into force of the Paris Agreement, risks and health impacts related to climate have not only increased but also accelerated in numerous areas compared to the past decade.
These include health risks related to heat, drought, and extreme rainfall. The fastest pace of these changes suggests that existing measures are insufficient to protect public health.
Other proposed measures include an immediate global ban on exploration and exploitation of new fossil fuels, the complete removal of coal-based energy production by 2035, and a shift towards mostly plant-based diets.
Despite efforts to address climate change, greenhouse gas emissions continue to reach record levels. Climate change is increasingly affecting health and threatening life worldwide, while the window of opportunity to avoid a potentially catastrophic future is closing rapidly.
The report notes that the last 11 years have been the hottest ever recorded, while annual heat related deaths have increased by nearly 36% over the past few decades.
In 2023 alone, the heat was linked to a record 710,000 deaths, with more than 70% of these deaths attributed to climate change caused by man.
Extreme weather and forest fires are increasingly threatening human health, especially among vulnerable populations and in areas with limited capacity to respond to climate impacts, Euronews.al writes.
In this context, authors say an urgent change of approach is needed to change course and protect the health and survival of present and future generations.
The signal where the truth speaks before the news!
Source Layer: Signal
