Climate change – the biggest health threat facing humanity

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Ms. Naida Salković, a sixth-year medical student at Bosnia and Herzegovina’s University of Tuzla. The writer is 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 writers and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

“Smoke From a Distant Fire”

I remember sitting in one conference “a long time ago” when the speaker told us a sentence “as my professor said, 21 century will be a century of migrations, pandemics and climate changes”’, and now in 2023. We can all agree with this statement. 

One of the most well-known truths is that the environment is crucial for the health of people, but nonetheless, we continue to neglect it and put the subject of climate change on the back burner. In the 20th century, climate change significantly accelerated and became the subject of exhaustive research by scientists around the world.

Questions were made: “What is the reason for them?”, “What can we do?”, but the biggest question is “What is the impact on the world we know?”.  It was very easy to answer a lot of these questions, the data is simple and clear. For example, according to the report of the World Meteorological Organization global temperature increased in the last few years for 1.1 °C compared to the pre-industrial period. 

As a medical student, I’m very interested in connecting this problem with health and population. Climate change has an influence on human health, according to research, and there is evidence that environmental contaminants cause various respiratory and cardiovascular ailments.

Besides direct effect on the health and body of every living being, climate changes affect public health also by disrupting the economy, thus lowering standard of life, and also by affecting food quantities and quality. Which leads us to the conclusion that climate changes not only are a threat to human health, but also to human rights.

We can say that if this trend continues we will have an even greater gap in the availability of resources, than what it is now. 

About the author

Naida Salković is a sixth-year medical student at Bosnia and Herzegovina’s University of Tuzla. Naida has always been an active member of her community, whether as a volunteer at various initiatives and groups or as an organizer herself, during her studies. Currently Naida is working as part of Europrean Team of IFMSA as Members Engagement Development Assistant for the term 2022./2023. Naida began writing articles over 3 years ago with the objective of teaching others and providing opportunities for them to learn and improve. She is passionate about reforming education and enjoys reading books to broaden her horizons.