Global warming. It also threatens our health.
Global warming will cause millions of additional deaths between 2030 and 2050, predicts the World Health Organization. Recent global epidemics of pathogenic microbes such as dengue and Zika, transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, are just one of the many consequences of this phenomenon. Others are expected to emerge.
By Armelle Bohineust – Le Figaro
Health, a largely forgotten item at COP21? The World Climate Conference in Paris ends today, December 11th, and the topic was far from being the focus of the summit's discussions. However, the effects of climate change on health are numerous. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts 250 additional deaths per year between 2030 and 2050, an excess mortality mainly due to increasing malnutrition (with the reduction of agricultural land), malaria, diarrhea, and heat-related stress.
Pollution, mosquitoes, tuberculosis
The warming of certain areas particularly favors the development of insects that carry serious diseases. The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits dengue fever, has already infiltrated France, along the Rhône Valley. With climate warming, it will spread to the point that, according to the WHO, one in two people will be exposed to this risk by 2080. But the disease is far from negligible, recalls Robert Sebbag, vice president responsible for access to medicines in developing countries at Sanofi. In adults, it causes very unpleasant pain, fever, and nausea, and can be fatal in children. Malaria, which claims 600 victims a year, is also expanding its range. It is expected to establish itself in mountainous areas previously preserved from the heat, such as the Andes Mountains in South America or the Kilimanjaro region in Tanzania, points out Robert Sebbag.
Furthermore, air degradation leads to an increase in respiratory diseases, warns the WHO, which accuses air pollution of causing millions of deaths per year. And climate-related migrations have many health consequences, highlights Robert Sebbag, pointing to the stress inflicted on these populations or the explosion of tuberculosis within their ranks.
Beyond its human impact, this deterioration in public health linked to warming has a cost, the WHO reminds us. Direct health damage, not counting expenses in sectors crucial to health such as agriculture, water and sanitation, is estimated at between 2 and 4 billion dollars per year until 2030.