Climate change poses increasingly pressing threats to human health

Heat, torrential rains, drought: global warming has multiple impacts on human health, which the large panel of experts Lancet Countdown (122 experts from 57 academic institutions, in partnership with UN agencies) have been documenting for nine years. The 2024 annual report, published Wednesday, October 30, in the medical journal. the lancetwarns about the increase in health risks linked to climate change.

Among the sixty indicators selected, the most evocative is the increase in heat-related mortality, especially among older populations, but also among very young children, people suffering from chronic diseases and precarious urban populations, which are They are among the most exposed to heat. According to the report, the number of people over 65 who died due to high temperatures in 2023 increased by 167% compared to the 1990s, that is, 102 percentage points more than the 65% expected in the absence of a increase in temperatures. Let’s say based solely on the aging of the world population.

But these harmful consequences do not only affect the most vulnerable. Experts highlight that in 2023, heat exposure put people who practiced physical activity outdoors at risk, as they were exposed to heat stress for 27.7% more hours than on average in the 1990s. This stress continues during the night; We see a record loss of 6% of sleep hours in 2023 compared to the average for the period 1986-2005.

“We see that rising temperatures have caused a record loss of 512 billion potential work hours in 2023, and the vast majority of these losses will occur in the agricultural sector”added Marina Romanello, executive director of Lancet Countdown and researcher at University College London, when presenting the report on Thursday, October 24. This translated into a potential income loss of $835 billion, with countries with a low human development index bearing the brunt of this damage (–7.6% of their GDP).

Extreme rainfall and drought

New indicators are adding to this overall picture, particularly extreme precipitation caused by climate change. More than 60% of the earth’s surface would have recorded an increase in the number of days of very intense rains between the period from 1961 to 1990 and from 2014 to 2024. At the same time, 48% of these territories were affected by at least one month of extreme drought in 2023. North Africa, South Africa and South America are particularly affected.

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