After over a hundred and fifty years of extreme abuse to our environment, we are beginning to see the reaction of our planet through climate change. Earths changing climate poses a serious and deadly threat to human health through several unfavorable outcomes. Risks such as an increase in extreme and unpredictable weather, air pollutants, and a rise in vector-borne diseases are all effects of climate change that have costly ramifications to human health. While some politicians try to deny climate change’s existence or the validity of the issue, scientists are beginning to see negative human health trends that can be linked to climate change that cannot be ignored. The magnitude of these issues varies, but the overall outcomes are a serious threat to public health. The effects of climate change are already being seen throughout the globe and are contributing to what many believe is the biggest problem facing mankind. 

Now that climate change is widely accepted throughout the scientific community, scientists and doctors are studying the human health effects that are related to the warming planet. One aspect of climate change that is effecting human health is extreme and unpredictable weather caused by a global shift in climate. This is one of the most widely debated aspects climate change, but also one of the most devastating to human health. Some people believe that it is impossible to make correlations between individual weather events and climate change. However, scientists now believe that it is possible, provided that all aspects of the event are analyzed and a wide variety of events are chosen in order to reduce scientific bias (Peterson). This does not mean that all extreme weather events are directly linked to climate change; as we have always had extreme weather, but rather that the prevalence and magnitude of extreme weather is increasing.

“One analogy of the effects of climate change on extreme weather is with a baseball player who starts taking steroids and afterwards hits on average 20% more home runs in a season than he did before. For any one of his home runs during the years the player was taking steroids, you would not know for sure whether it was caused by steroids or not. But you might be able to attribute his increased number to the steroids” (Peterson). 

The same can be seen in an extreme weather event. While not all weather events can be attributed to climate change, the changing global climate can increase the likelihood and the severity of extreme weather. 

In order to see trends between climate change and extreme weather, researchers analyzed several extreme weather events in 2011 from extreme temperatures, draughts, floods, hurricanes, etcetera. To prevent bias these researchers chose events from all over the planet and various types of extreme weather. While not all of the extreme events that they analyzed had a correlation with climate change, they concluded that there is sufficient evidence to support that human influence has affected trends and long-term behavior of temperature and precipitation extremes around the globe. This intern effects the types and frequencies of weather (Peterson).

Those who do not believe that climate change is real or that it is not a pertinent issue need to look no further than East Africa. They have been experiencing a decade long drought that has killed thousands and also caused many to abandon their homes.  Areas that used to be covered in lush grasses are now turned to a barren wasteland. “Predictable sun and rain has been replaced in recent years by a series of extreme weather events, leaving places like Turkana (a province in Kenya) with little time to recover from one disaster to the next” (Kalotum). Villagers here have lost everything because their climate is changing. Villager Mary Atabo is left with only three goats after her herd of over 100 have died because she can no longer feed and hydrate them due to a decade long drought (Kalotum). African communities that have spent generations on the same land are now deserting their homes in search for water. This decrease in precipitation can be attributed to the warming Western Pacific and Indian Oceans caused by an overall increase in global temperatures (Peterson). Due to complex weather patters East Africans are experiencing extremes shifts in climate from warming temperatures that are happening thousands of miles from them. Even though East Africa is an area that hardly contributes to climate change compared to the United States, they are tremendously effected by the results of climate change.

The effects of climate change on human health can also be seen in the extreme heat waves that took place in Europe in 2003. That year, 14,800 excess deaths were reported in France from a heat wave that effected much of western Europe. This caused a 140% increase in mortality in Paris than what would have been expected that time of year. While some of these deaths are attributed to elderly people who were likely to died in the near future, there is likely to be substantial numbers of potentially preventable deaths (Haines). These extreme death tolls are a sign of how powerful climate change can be on a population.  Climatologists believe that it is “very likely that human influence on the global climate has at least doubled the risk of a heat wave such as that experienced in 2003” (Haines). Unpredictable events such as extreme heatwaves are especially deadly when countries are not prepared for the extreme conditions. Because climate change is making weather more unpredictable, governments are not able to strategize on reducing their effects.  This extreme weather shows that while climate change usually effects lower income countries first, wealthy and influential countries like France are also at risk from climate change.

One of the most notable effects of climate change is the increase in pollens and other allergens that are correlated with asthma. Asthma is a serious disease that causes airways of the body to swell, leading to reduced airflow to the lungs. According to European respiratory experts, the main effects of climate change on asthma, are an increase in plants, an increase in the amount of pollen produced by each plant, an increase in the amount of allergenic proteins contained in pollen, and an increase in the start time of plant growth (D’Amato). Warming temperatures are leading to the perfect conditions for pollen producing plants to flourish. This surge in pollen and other allergens poses a serious threat to the 25 million people living in the United States diagnosed with asthma. This number has risen a shocking amount in recent years. “Between 2001 and 2009, the number of patients diagnosed with asthma rose by 4.3 million, according to CDC reports” (Patterson). In the U.S. asthma has quadrupled over the last two decades in part due to climate change (Epstien). Now millions of people are feeling the effects of climate change and its increase in pollen. This rise is especially harmful because asthma is commonly found in children and if left untreated, can be deadly.

The effects of climate change on human health can be illustrated by the increase in asthma among young children. Currently in the United States, asthma is the number one cause of school absences. This is attributed to the increase of pollens and air pollutants from automobiles. Automobiles currently contribute to 27 percent of our countries emissions and these air pollutants can exacerbate the symptoms of asthma (Patterson). The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Clean Diesel Campaign requires stronger emission standards and the use of clean fuel. They also offered grants to help replace old diesel engines with new cleaner engines. This allowed 20,000 buses to be upgraded throughout the country, reducing pollutants from busses by as much as 50 percent (Patterson). The steps taken by the EPA showed extreme results when inflammation markers in children dropped twenty to thirty percent (Patterson). This regulation by the EPA shows how reducing air pollutants that cause climate change not only helps prevent climate change but also improves symptoms of asthma in our nations youth. Researchers found that these upgrades may have a significant impact on the health of the 25 million children who ride school buses every day—reducing levels of pollutants in buses by as much as 50 percent.

Scientists believe that deadly vector-borne diseases will continue to increase as Earth’s overall temperature increases from climate change, causing a greater risk to human health. Vector-borne diseases are diseases spread from living organisms to humans or other animals. These diseases can often be deadly when contracted. The warmer global temperatures and unpredictable weather will cause ideal conditions for mosquito growth, which is the leading transmitter of these diseases (Haines). The increased life expectancy of these insects allows them to infect more people and also reproduce more causing their population to grow extremely rapidly.

Like most aspects of climate change, low income countries contribute the least to climate change and experience the most harmful effects to human health. Vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue are extremely deadly especially in low income nations. “Malaria in poorer countries is currently only restricted by climate factors in specific arid and highland regions” (Haines). As the global climate warms, it is more difficult for poorer nations to implement malaria control programs causing death tolls to rise. The World Health Organization estimates that Malaria already causes more than 400,000 deaths every year globally, most of them children under 5 years of age (Vector-borne Diseases). This shocking number has the ability to increase rapidly because mosquitos who carry the disease are living longer.  According to European researchers, “Climate change will also lengthen the transmission season in many areas, causing a 16–28% increase in the total number of person–months of exposure” (Haines). Exposure to these diseases is often deadly when not properly treated.  New global temperatures also change how quickly viruses within mosquitos and other vectors can incubate and replicate (Human Health).  This increase in viruses may cause more mosquitos to carry harmful viruses that can lead to increase deaths across the planet. The threat of increased vector-borne disease is a scary reality that the world must face if we continue to harm our planet. 

Even in well developed areas where measures are put into place to prevent disease spreading, there is still an alarming increase in vector-borne diseases. The growth of insect populations has already had an effect within the United States with ticks carrying Lyme disease.  Lyme disease is the leading vector-borne disease in the United States and can effect the heart and nervous system of the body if untreated. This disease can never be fully cured and many patients result in early onset arthritis in their joints. “Currently, there are over 300,000 cases of Lyme disease reported in the United States every year. That's double the figure of a quarter-century ago” (Sealy). Because of warmer temperatures, ticks are living longer and spreading to higher latitudes allowing more people to contract their harmful disease. Ticks are outliving their normal life expectancy because warmer temperatures provide an ideal habitat for their survival and reproduction. If ticks continue to increase people will be increasingly susceptible to contracting this terrible disease.

After over a century of historical data on the world’s climate, scientists overwhelmingly believe that climate change is occurring and has severe consequences to human health.  These human health risks effect people of all countries throughout the world and often have deadly side effects. There are a number of ways climate change can effect human health through environmental changes. One of the most serious outcomes of climate change is extreme and unpredictable weather including heat waves and draughts. Human health is also effected by an increase in air pollutants causing a rise in asthma and other harmful respiratory illnesses. Lastly, human health is effected by the increase in the spread of vector-borne diseases such as Malaria, Dengue fever, and Lyme disease. Early action to help prevent further damage to our planet is essential to protect the lives of all people who are at risk. It is imperative that people are informed of the causes and effects of climate change on human health. Although we are already experiences many of these human health effects, it is not too late for us to prevent further harm to our planet. For change to occur awareness is essential, especially to the younger generations who will determine the future of our planet and the overall health of our species.
