Climate Change and Our Health by Nova DeGraaf
Why does the temperature not seem to be cooling down as much as it usually does around this time of the year? Don't we have snow around this time? What about our health recently? These are all very frequently asked questions involving our environment and the world, and it’s all thanks to the ever growing climate crisis the world is facing right now. This large-scale climate crisis may just be seen as an environmental issue, which is true. However, it also has lasting effects on people’s overall health, especially as of recently. Many scientists are exhibiting how in the coming years of 2030-2050, climate change is expected to cause tens of thousands of additional deaths per year.
Some ways that climate change directly affects the health of people is through disease, and rising temperatures. A very large factor that has been secretly creeping back into our lives as of recently has to do with infectious diseases and the spread of them. With the rising temperatures and warmer climates, disease has been more likely to spread faster and easier. Yet, that's just the surface of what the diseases are doing. Looking deeper into it, the disease could possibly be spread through things such as food. This causes many people to be conscious of what they eat because they don't know if it’s actually clean or has been properly treated. This is especially affecting places that are deeper in poverty because they don't have the ability to check their food for these life threatening things. This is very serious and it's happening right now around the world, continually claiming lives.
Heatwaves and extreme heat are also the top reasons for higher death percentages recently. Many people over 65 have a harder time controlling their body in ways younger generations don't even have to worry about, meaning that little things like the temperature have a large scale effect on them. Usually humans produce sweat from their glands when they have a higher body temperature; however, when high and varying temperatures occur, elderly people have a hard time adjusting to the change because their sweat glands can’t react as fast and are less sensitive. This could lead to things such as higher risk of contracting cardiovascular diseases, heat stroke, multi-organ failure, and eventually, death.
This is not something that should be overlooked. If we want to be healthier and have less risk of contracting several diseases or sicknesses, we must act. Because this isn’t just an environmental crisis, it’s a health crisis too.
Some ways that climate change directly affects the health of people is through disease, and rising temperatures. A very large factor that has been secretly creeping back into our lives as of recently has to do with infectious diseases and the spread of them. With the rising temperatures and warmer climates, disease has been more likely to spread faster and easier. Yet, that's just the surface of what the diseases are doing. Looking deeper into it, the disease could possibly be spread through things such as food. This causes many people to be conscious of what they eat because they don't know if it’s actually clean or has been properly treated. This is especially affecting places that are deeper in poverty because they don't have the ability to check their food for these life threatening things. This is very serious and it's happening right now around the world, continually claiming lives.
Heatwaves and extreme heat are also the top reasons for higher death percentages recently. Many people over 65 have a harder time controlling their body in ways younger generations don't even have to worry about, meaning that little things like the temperature have a large scale effect on them. Usually humans produce sweat from their glands when they have a higher body temperature; however, when high and varying temperatures occur, elderly people have a hard time adjusting to the change because their sweat glands can’t react as fast and are less sensitive. This could lead to things such as higher risk of contracting cardiovascular diseases, heat stroke, multi-organ failure, and eventually, death.
This is not something that should be overlooked. If we want to be healthier and have less risk of contracting several diseases or sicknesses, we must act. Because this isn’t just an environmental crisis, it’s a health crisis too.