Climate Health or Climate Hysteria?

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Dr. Bayan Maged and Dr. Maryam Nabil, two dynamic and enthusiastic intern physicians at Ain Shams University Hospital, Cairo, Egypt. They are affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

Climate change is a controversial topic. Despite scientists agreeing that human activity is the cause, some remain skeptical. Regardless, its impact on the quality of life of many people cannot be denied.

With the exception of the heatwave of 2006, which had the highest recorded number of heat-related deaths in the US since the start of the 21st century, statistics show that heat-related deaths are rising gradually with the rise of the planet’s temperatures. These deaths include heat strokes and dehydration, as well as cardiovascular, respiratory, and cerebrovascular diseases.  

Agriculture is also greatly affected due to the changing weather patterns, causing heat waves, heavy rainfall, or droughts. Which in turn impacts food security, especially in sub-saharan african and southeast asian countries where temperatures are already high and fresh water availability is limited. However, it is also worth mentioning that much of modern-day agriculture is responsible for a third of greenhouse gas emissions, especially methane, thus furthering global warming.

Climate change also affects vector-borne diseases through many ways, first off, the rising temperature increases the geographic spread of vectors such as mosquitoes and ticks. For example, in 2019, tropical disease-carrying ticks were found to have survived in Germany through the winter months. It also prolongs the disease transmission season and alters behavioral patterns of the vectors causing an increase in their contact with humans, for instance, species of mosquitoes have been found to shield themselves indoors to avoid higher temperatures.

The average number of billion-dollar natural disasters per year grew from about three per year in the 1980s to about 18 a year from 2017 to 2021. This  increase in the frequency of  extreme weather events, such as flooding, droughts, and storms, can threaten the health of people during and after the event. For instance the damaged roads and bridges will disrupt access to hospitals and pharmacies and therefore interrupt communication and utility, creating or worsening mental health impacts such as depression and PTSD. 

The health of most vulnerable groups is the most impacted by climate change and its unfair policies. These groups include poorer communities that tend to have relatively lower carbon emissions, but are less considered in climate change policy-making. A just and equitable response requires that those with both the largest responsibility for carbon emissions, and the greatest means, should bear the largest part of any costs of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and that public measures should be explicitly designed to promote health equity, for example, by prioritizing particularly vulnerable groups.

While many believe climate change is real, some debate that the climate agenda is a hoax and that it’s a fear tactic to extract money, nevertheless,  the reality is that people are dying from both bad climate change policies and actual climate change.Therefore better policies should be planned and executed and a range of adaptation programs should be funded to help Band-aid the problem. 

About the authors

Dr. Bayan Maged and Dr. Maryam Nabil are two dynamic and enthusiastic intern physicians at Ain Shams University Hospital, Cairo, Egypt .Currently, they are active members of the IFMSA Egypt . They are passionate about cultural exchange especially when it comes to the medical field and improving it in their home country through research and sharing ideas . With a sense of purpose to contribute to the  health-care sector in the future.