Effect of climate change on health in Pakistan Mohammad

ABSTRACT

Climate change has emerged as a global issue that poses a serious threat to life in this world such as a shortage of food and clean drinking water due to global warming, erratic weather patterns, melting glaciers, droughts, etc. This issue has been in the limelight for more than 4 decades and world bodies including the WHO have been quite active in holding international conferences, seminars, and workshops to impress upon the member countries to take concrete steps to mitigate environmental degradation and save future generations from the devastating effects of climate change. While the climate change issue has been highlighted to a great extent, its impact on health has not received appreciable attention of the world community. The initiative of Inter-Academy Partnership (IAP) to address this issue is, therefore, a laudable scientific endeavor. Pakistan, one of the developing countries in South Asia is among the 5 most-affected countries due to climate change. Climate change has resulted in erratic weather patterns, reduction in the availability of clean water per capita, melting of glaciers, desertification of fertile cultivable land, flooding, land sliding, and drought leading to food insecurity. Besides having a drastic effect on the economy, the health of people is also getting adversely affected. According to the United Nations, more than 44% of Pakistani children under the age of 5 years suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition. Such stunting impairs normal brain and body development. This has been one of the most alarming consequences of poverty and food insecurity. Other ill-effects of climate change (such as unseasonal rains and “smog”) on health include the spread of water and vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue, zika virus, typhoid, cholera, asthma, hay fever, allergies, respiratory diseases, and chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, renal disease, obesity, cancers, anxiety, and depression. Moreover, infectious diseases such as hepatitis B and C, COVID-19 are also spreading due to a compromised immune system. It is hoped that the world during the post-pandemic period would be more conscious of the mitigation steps to be taken to prevent future generations from the ill-effects of climate change. The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres in his recently enunciated guiding principles urged the world leaders in the post-pandemic period “to rescue businesses that can create new jobs and enterprises through a clean and green transition based on the decarbonization of the economy and shift fiscal power from grey to green to initiate the resilience of people and communities in a way that is fair and leaves no one behind”. In other words, the world needs a “climate-smart” stimulus to provide a safe and healthy environment to future generations. © Pakistan Academy of Sciences.