Climate Change's Health Impacts

Much has already been said about climate change and its ill effects on our environment. However, there is still much more that needs to be talked about on how climate change's effects on our environment can lead to much more catastrophic consequences.

Over the past years, we have seen how global warming has affected our climate and, consequently, our health. When the climate changes extremely, this disrupts our natural bodily functions and can lead to sickness and even death. Also, the occurrence of certain diseases depend mainly on our climate.

The Philippine Star Much has already been said about climate change and its ill effects on our environment. However, there is still much more that needs to be talked about on how climate change’s effects on our environment can lead to much more catastrophic consequences.

Over the past years, we have seen how global warming has affected our climate and, consequently, our health. When the climate changes extremely, this disrupts our natural bodily functions and can lead to sickness and even death. Also, the occurrence of certain diseases depend mainly on our climate.

The most direct result of climate change would be the effect of hotter temperatures on us humans. Extremely hot temperatures multiply the number of people who die on a given day for different reasons. For example, people with heart problems can be the most vulnerable because our cardiovascular systems must work harder to keep our bodies cool during hot weather. So if a person has a heart problem, he can suffer a heart attack if the weather is extremely hot. You will recall that just last month, a deadly heat wave struck Europe that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people in several countries. Global warming can also increase the spread of infectious diseases, especially those that only appear in warm areas. Warmer temperatures could also result in a substantial increase in the geographical ranges of mosquitoes and other insects, thereby enabling these insects to spread diseases even farther.

Diseases like malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and encephalitis are already experiencing a resurgence worldwide. As temperatures increase, the quality and quantity of drinking water could decrease as water sources all over the globe become threatened by drought. Health disorders related to environmental and water contamination by bacteria, viruses and parasites like diarrhea, cholera, typhoid and hepatitis A could also increase.

However, dire these scenarios may be though, our government can help mitigate many of the impacts of climate change through effective public information dissemination, the maintenance of strong public health programs to monitor, treat and prevent the spread of diseases, especially the infectious ones, and the timely response to other health emergencies as they occur. Global warming and its ill effects will continue as long as nations all around the globe cannot curb the use of fossil fuel. But by being cautious and well-informed, we can avoid and even prevent many of its impacts.