FEATURED ARTICLE: “Over half of known human pathogenic diseases can be aggravated by climate change”
The Covid-19 pandemic was a sobering reality check that we cannot continue as we have. Our actions impact the environment and the climate, and if we continue to go as we have, we will also be harming ourselves. That may feel heavy, but it is a reality we need not only to acknowledge but also understand so we can prepare ourselves for the future. In the journal article “Over half of known human pathogenic diseases can be aggravated by climate change” published in Nature Climate Change in August of 2022, researchers identified that,
“58% of diseases confronted by humanity worldwide have been at some point aggravated by climate hazards.”
Plainly speaking, that means change to the climate due to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) is creating more instances and opportunities for deadly, contagious diseases worldwide. And it is happening so often that we cannot adapt quickly enough to keep ourselves safe.
What the researchers found
As the researchers mention, they aimed to explore further the extent that climate change has on diseases, not if climate change and climate hazards – individual climate disasters such as droughts, flooding, sea level rise, etc., linked to GHG emissions – impact diseases, but how much they do. The issue they came upon in understanding their question was that there wasn’t a more comprehensive review of climate change and pathogenic diseases. Rather, research was broken down by diseases (such as bacteria, viruses, animals, plants, fungi, protozoa, etc.) and how they are transmitted, such as airborne or via direct contact.
Following a thorough review of 77,000 titles and with the inclusion of 830 references, the researchers identified 286 pathogenic diseases experienced by humans. Among those diseases, they identified if and how each disease was impacted by climate change and climate hazards. At the top of the list of climate hazards that aggravated diseases among people were:
warming (160 diseases)
precipitation (122 diseases)
floods (121 diseases)
drought (81 diseases)
If you’re curious to see more, the researchers created an amazing online tool where you can view the connections to the different diseases and climate hazards.
While very alarming information, there is a silver lining in this research. For some diseases (63 of the 286), climate hazards “diminished” their prevalence. They provide the example of warming, which “reduced the spread of viral diseases,” such as the flu and SARS, because of “unsuitable conditions for the virus or because of a stronger immune system in warmer conditions.” However, while one climate hazard, like warming, might diminish the prevalence of a disease, another climate hazard, such as flooding, might exacerbate it. The researchers also highlighted that climate hazards bring pathogens closer to people, whether through habitat disruptions that force wildlife and people closer together or warming, which allows pathogens to survive through winter. All in all, it’s a fragile ecosystem.
Moving Forward
While some might feel like this is apocalyptic news, the truth is that we can do many things with this knowledge. Firstly, we need to acknowledge that the consequences of climate change are not far in the future – they are here and now. As our Chief Impact Officer, Lisa Richardson, Ph.D., shared in our August newsletter, we should apply the Seventh Generation Principle to our lives. The Haudenosaunee, or the Iroquois, believe that the decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future. How can we apply that principle to even one generation in the future?
On the public health side, how can we prepare to deal with diseases, outbreaks, and pandemics as they become more prevalent in our globalized world? If the COVID pandemic taught us anything, it’s that we are under prepared and a lot more vulnerable than we think we are. With research such as this, we can move forward; we can find solutions to reduce greenhouse gases, we can create plans to mitigate outbreaks, and we can take decisive action so we and future generations can have a safer, healthier world than we do now.