Climate Change and Longevity Go Hands in Hand - Longevity LIVE

Climate change and longevity are inseparable. related. There are significant health threats associated with changing weather patterns and some geographies may be hit harder than others. The danger is all-encompassing.

Increasingly, leaders in the healthcare industry are raising their concerns about the impact of climate change on healthcare projections. Mustafa Kamel, Janssen South Africa Director of Medical Affairs has been outspoken about his concerns. He says its time to act now!

The world has warmed by more than 1°C. We can still limit temperature rise to 1.5°C & avoid the worst climate impacts. But we need more ambition now.

“At the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world view has shifted to climate change and its impacts in the near, medium and long term. This is a clear reality and variations in severity are expected to be distributed unequally around the world. Some places may be cooler, but other areas experience warmer winters, for example. Included in the package, more frequent and bad weather conditions. And we’ve seen this phenomenon emerge.”

Climate change will impact the longevity of the most vulnerable

Just as changes in temperature and weather will be distributed unequally, so the impacts of climate change will be disproportionately distributed.

Unfortunately, the segments of the population most at risk are those most vulnerable. This includes low-income communities, children and pregnant women, elderly adults, persons with disabilities and pre-existing conditions. These risks are complex.

As Kamel notes, “Think about what all this really means. Just imagine your daily life. Clean drinking water, the air we breathe, the food we eat, the flights we take and the fossil fuels we consume. We created this monster, and now we have to face it.”

Climate change and food security are linked to nutrition and health

There is no doubt that climate change will have significant impacts on health and healthcare as well. In many cases, this is along the value chain such as food security, which is paired with nutrition, and in turn related diseases and conditions that may arise. These may include an increased risk of cancer, dental problems, weight gain and proper growth in children, mental health challenges and diabetes, among others.

Climate change will also put additional pressure on the health care system.

“Basic level ozone, or smog, has several respiratory hazards and consequences can include lung conditions, asthma or pre-existing conditions, while water-borne threats such as cholera can become more widespread. Diseases that were previously thought to be under control, such as Malaria, can begin to spread again in areas that were previously eradicated. Lyme disease and dengue fever are also among the ecologically based diseases that may return unwelcome. The list of mild to severe impacts on world health is huge.” – Mustafa Kamel, Director of Medical Affairs for Janssen South Africa

Photo by Jonathan Ford at Unsplash

Add to this the direct consequences of climate change that we have already seen growing. An example of a heat wave in which sunburn, cardiovascular failure, and other related deaths occur. Floods, as we have recently seen in many parts of the world, cause property damage, injury, and human death.

Health is under threat

While trying to slow down climate change become a global agenda, action must be taken. And it’s not just about reducing carbon emissions. It is also about environmental degradation through activities such as deforestation, overgrazing, waste management and the like. In fact, nearly every aspect of our lives must be responsibly reshaped in the collective effort to counter the tsunami that humanity has initiated. Now it’s up to us to manage the severity.

“We will save ourselves,” said Kamel, “And while the full impact of climate change may be just a scientific guesswork at this point, governments around the world are paying attention and planning to fulfill the inevitable. Health care is no different. ”

What are we doing?

To effectively manage the impact of stress on health care, Kamel said, it is imperative to place greater emphasis on primary health care. This is especially true for emerging markets and countries where segments of the population are low-income and unemployment or poverty is rampant. South Africa is in danger.

Significant investment and roundtable collaboration between role-players is now more important than ever. This requires changes in national policies, and collaborative efforts between authorities, the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare practitioners, the private hospital sector and healthcare organizations.

Let’s do something about it now

The opportunity costs are potentially enormous. The World Health Organization estimates that by 2030, the cost of direct damage to health due to climate change could range from two to four billion dollars, and that doesn’t include the added price tag for clean water and sanitation for example. The agency also projects an additional 250,000 deaths annually between now and 2050, which are directly related to the impacts of climate change.

Kamel says that primary health care is where illness or disease can be most effectively treated, and progressive infections and their effects can be managed on the origin of the disease. He noted,

“Climate change is the greatest threat to humanity and life as we know it. Let’s do something about it, now. ”

Read more

Longevity shares global concerns about the climate crisis. You can read more here: We can’t be Pro-Aging without a healthy planet

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