Climate change is progressing faster than expected, threatening human health

The environmental and societal impacts of climate change are progressing more rapidly than previously expected, nearing limits to what society can feasibly adapt to, according to a recent report.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a new scientific report detailing current and estimated risks associated with climate change, and warned with high confidence that the “rise in weather and climate extremes has led to some irreversible impacts as natural and human systems are pushed beyond their ability to adapt.”

In its 2021 report, the IPCC said that life-threatening climate extremes like heatwaves, tropical storms and droughts will become more common, and some changes on Earth’s climate are now irreversible, Healio previously reported.

Climate change will lead to numerous risks for nature and health in future years, including “significantly increased ill health and premature deaths from the near- to long-term,” the panel wrote in its latest report. Food-borne, water-borne and vector-borne disease risks are expected to increase, as are mental health challenges.

“This report makes it clear that the choices we make now will determine the future of our health and the health of the world; highlighting both the mental and physical health effects of climate change, which are often overlooked,” Rachel Levine, MD, the assistant secretary for health at HHS, said in a press release. “I am proud of the work HHS is doing to protect and promote human health in the face of climate change, and to build more sustainable and climate resilient health systems.”

However, current measures may not be enough to avoid some of the high-risk consequences associated with climate change, according to the panel.

“The magnitude and rate of climate change and associated risks depend strongly on near-term mitigation and adaptation actions, and projected adverse impacts and related losses and damages escalate with every increment of global warming,” the panel wrote in the report.

Global temperatures have increased by an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius since the 19th century. The IPCC estimates that a warming of at least 1.5 degrees Celsius would cause “unavoidable increase in multiple climate hazards and present multiple risks to ecosystems and humans.”

The IPCC called on policymakers to implement greater climate-resilient strategies in the next decade as past and current development trends “have not advanced” global resiliency. Prospective strategies for climate resilience will be increasingly limited if current greenhouse gas emissions do not rapidly decline, the panel wrote.

References:

Climate change 2022: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6wg2/pdf/IPCC_AR6_WGII_SummaryForPolicymakers.pdf. Published Feb. 28, 2022. Accessed Feb. 28, 2022.

Climate change is harming the planet faster than we can adapt, U.N. warns. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/climate/climate-change-ipcc-report.html?auth=login-email&login=email. Published Feb. 28, 2022. Accessed Feb. 28, 2022.

HHS statement on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/02/28/hhs-statement-intergovernmental-panel-climate-change-report.html. Published Feb. 28, 2022. Accessed Feb. 28, 2022.