Climate change is worsening infectious diseases and exacerbating health problems

The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

From West Nile fever to asthma, climate change is exacerbating infectious diseases and hampering our ability to fight them.This is what emerges from research published in the magazine Nature Climate Change in August, according to which more than half of the infectious diseases known to impact humans have been made more dangerous by climate change.

Diseases such as hepatitis, cholera, malaria and many others are spreading faster, affecting large segments of the population around the world and becoming more severe due to climate-related events.And it's not just transmissibility that's increasing:Climate change has impacts on health, immunity and access to medical care.

“The global health response to these diseases will have to be massive,” he commented Erik Franklin, associate professor at the University of Hawaii and one of the study's authors.“It's more proof that we're in trouble.We must rapidly reduce our burden of greenhouse gas emissions."

The researchers focused on ten types of extreme weather events made more violent and intense by the climate crisis (such as floods, heat waves, droughts and wildfires) and examined cases where these events were a driver of 375 diseases known infectious diseases.The study found that in 58% of cases climate change has made infectious diseases more severe.

There are many ways in which climate change can affect diseases.First, as global temperatures rise and ecosystems change, pathogens are changing their range, getting closer to new populations.Mosquitoes, for example, they are expanding into new areas previously inhospitable to their species, spreading malaria, dengue, West Nile virus and Chikungunya fever.

Furthermore, the research continues, climate migrations of those fleeing storms, floods and rising sea levels have exposed people to viruses, bacteria and other pathogens, including Escherichia coli, cholera vibrio and salmonella.In particular, vibrio-associated infections have increasedand notably in Sweden and Finland following a heat wave in northern Scandinavia in 2014.

Third, climate change is making pathogens stronger.Ocean warming, for example, it's speeding up the growth of harmful algal blooms, linked to diarrhea and vomiting, respiratory problems and liver damage.The studies they demonstrated that rising temperatures may help viruses become more resistant to heat, resulting in increased disease severity as pathogens are better able to adapt to fever in the human body.Additionally, some research suggests that rising global temperatures are leading to increased heat tolerance of fungal pathogens.The sudden appearance on several continents of human infections resistant to Candida auris treatment, a previously non-pathogenic fungus for humans, has been associated with rising global temperatures.

Finally, climate change can weaken people's adaptive abilities and make them more susceptible to disease.The concentration of nutrients in crops, for example, decreases as carbon dioxide levels increase it can cause malnutrition.Stress related to extreme weather also increases cortisol, which reduces our natural immune response.

The study of Nature Climate Change concludes that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is essential to mitigate the spread of diseases induced by climate change.“Our paper makes it clear that the number of diseases and the ways in which epidemics can be triggered are too numerous for comprehensive adaptation,” explain the authors of the study.

The researchers also made a portal where climate-influenced disease transmission routes can be visualized.“Our hope with this tool is to help doctors dig deeper into the results, to identify whether there are climate risks or diseases that the climate crisis is impacting,” Franklin said.

The worsening of infectious diseases is not the only threat to public health that is intensifying due to climate change.Climate change is exacerbating a range of health problems, including injuries and premature deaths linked to extreme weather events, increases in respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and deteriorating mental health, explains Dr Shyam Bishen, Head of Health and Healthcare at the World Economic Forum:"Climate change is becoming a real public health emergency."

The health risks related to climate change are disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people, including the elderly, poor communities and ethnic minorities.“Although no one is safe from these risks – observes Bishen – the people whose health is most damaged by the climate crisis are those who contribute the least to its causes and who are least able to protect themselves and their families from this crisis” .

Exceeding 1.5°C of global warming could trigger multiple climate turning points

September 9th on Science has been published a study on climate turning points with the most worrying implications for the planet among those released this year.According to the research, an increase in temperatures between 1.5°C and 2°C (0.3°C more than current temperatures and within the parameters of the Paris Agreement) could trigger multiple climate turning points.

Tipping points are thresholds that, if exceeded, trigger large-scale and potentially irreversible changes causing a system – or an “element” – to abruptly transition into a new state with serious implications for humanity.Among these, the rise in sea levels due to the melting of ice caps, the disappearance of biodiversity ecosystems such as the Amazon rainforest or coral reefs, the release of carbon due to the thawing of permafrost.For example, if the tipping point of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is exceeded, rapid melting will cause the ice sheet to collapse.

Rising temperatures – the researchers explain – may have already pushed the planet beyond a “safe climate state”.This is why we must do everything to limit the increase in temperatures compared to the pre-industrial era to below 1.5°C.All current parameters, however, project the planet to a rise in temperatures of 2°C to 3°C.

The study, which analyzed hundreds of academic studies to provide an "updated assessment" of climate-related tipping points, identified 16 turning points in total (nine systems that concern the entire Earth system and another seven which, if exceeded threshold, would have “profound regional consequences”), outlining the temperature thresholds, timing and impacts of each.If temperatures rise by 1.5°C, four risk elements will become “probable” and another six will be “possible”.If, however, the planet warms by 2.6°C, as predicted by current climate policies, there will be thirteen "probable" or "possible" turning points.

In particular, the study found that five risk elements, including the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet and an abrupt thaw of the permafrost, are already “possible”.

“The observations revealed that parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may have already passed a tipping point,” commented the study's lead author, David McKay, a visiting fellow at the University of Exeter's Global Systems Institute.“Potential warning signs have been detected for the Greenland ice sheet, the Atlantic meridian circulation and the destabilization of the Amazon forest.”

However, he explained to Carbon Brief Sebastian Bathiany, researcher at the Technical University of Munich (who did not participate in the research), although this research goes in the "right direction", its results should not be taken as definitive.The discussion on the critical points is still ongoing and their definition shifts the findings of the studies.“The uncertainties in this field of research are still too great to make quantitative statements,” notes Bathiany.“Climate model projections are highly uncertain and potentially unreliable regarding turning points…As a result, the list of elements close to the turning point and the temperature thresholds will certainly change again.”

Energy crisis, Bruegel think tank:“Only with a unitary policy will the European Union be able to overcome the energy crisis” 

A great agreement to arrive at a unitary energy policy and overcome the current crisis.It is the path proposed by a paper published by the think tank Bruegel on the eve of the meeting of the energy ministers of the 27 member states of the European Union in Brussels on 9 September.

The meeting led to nothing.No decision has been made on the gas price cap even though, as stated by the Minister for Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani, "15 countries have clearly spoken out in favor of a price cap generalized, three would prefer to have it only on Russian gas, three have no preliminary ruling but would like it subject to sustainability checks with a reasonable opening and five countries are against or neutral".

On 14 September, during the annual speech on the State of the European Union to the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen illustrated the Commission's proposals to combat the increase in gas and energy prices electric.The goal is to raise more than 140 billion euros by taxing 33% of the extra profits of oil, gas, coal and refining companies starting from the 2022 fiscal year (with expected revenues of 25 billion euros more year) and setting a maximum ceiling of 180 euros per megawatt hour on the revenues of nuclear and renewable energy suppliers.This, in turn, would generate an excess profit of around €117 billion a year which would have to be channeled into subsidies for struggling families and businesses facing soaring energy bills.The Commission also proposed a mandatory target for countries to reduce electricity by 5% at peak times to avoid a winter of blackouts and rationing.Member States' gas depots are 84% full, a good level before winter but which may not be enough to get through the entire winter season.

The proposals will then have to be approved by the member states before becoming effective, he writes again Bloomberg While, he adds Reuters, EU countries will be allowed to use 225 billion euros of unused loans from the European Union's Covid recovery fund "to tackle the energy crisis".Furthermore, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) he declared that we are “evaluating a way to help energy companies in liquidity crisis”.

The European energy system is facing unprecedented physical and institutional stress, writes Bruegel.At the root of the crisis is a post-COVID-19 global energy imbalance when, immediately after the end of lockdowns and the reopening of economies, energy supply did not keep pace with the increase in demand.And the reduction in the supply of fossil fuels in line with climate objectives has not corresponded to a proportional reduction in the demand for the fuels themselves.This situation was then aggravated by “Russian manipulation of European natural gas markets since summer 2021” and other critical events “such as weak French nuclear production and the ongoing drought, which has reduced hydroelectric energy production”.

Europe's gas supply map is rapidly being redrew.Here it is ours @Bruegel_org attempt to visualize the major changes occurred since last year.To discover all details: https://t.co/P7t5BOVx1S pic.twitter.com/UiiUS1CnMQ

— Simone Tagliapietra (@Tagliapietra_S) September 9, 2022

“The policy response so far has been overly nationally focused and could undermine the goals of calming energy markets over the next 18 months and achieving ambitious decarbonization goals,” explains Bruegel.In response to high and volatile gas prices and forced reductions in demand, European governments have tended to opt for narrow and uncoordinated measures, prioritizing national security of supply and affordability over an integrated European approach.“Subsidizing energy consumption instead of reducing demand has been a common and wrong approach.Governments run the risk that energy consumption subsidies become unsustainable, eroding confidence in energy markets, slowing sanctions action against Russia and increasing the cost of the transition to net zero emissions.”

The current crisis seems destined to leave behind a radically different system, but what this system will look like remains an open question, continues the think tank which proposes as a solution “a major energy agreement based on four general principles:1) All countries must anticipate all available flexibility on the supply side 2) All countries must make global efforts to reduce demand 3) A policy that is committed to maintaining energy markets and cross-border flows, 4) A compensation for the most vulnerable consumers.

African nations call for more climate finance ahead of COP27

African ministers, meeting in Cairo two months before the United Nations Climate Conference, they asked a strong increase in climate finance on their continent and milder measures in the transition towards clean energy sources.“The African continent emits only 3% of global CO2 emissions,” he noted former UN chief Ban Ki-moon.“Yet African nations are among the most exposed to the effects of climate change.”“Africa benefits from less than 5.5% of global climate finance, despite having a low carbon footprint, playing a key role in capturing greenhouse gases, such as in the Congo Basin which is home to the second largest tropical rainforest largest in the world after the Amazon, and suffers disproportionately from climate change,” we read in a statement released by the African ministers of Finance, Economy and the Environment.

The statement calls on rich countries to meet their climate commitments and says that poor countries should be able to develop economically while receiving more funding to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), Africa is losing 5% to 15% of its per capita economic growth due to the effects of climate change and faces a huge climate finance gap.African nations received about $18.3 billion in climate finance between 2016 and 2019, said Kevin Urama, acting chief economist at the AfDB.But they face a nearly $1.3 trillion hole in climate finance for the period 2020 to 2030.In 2009, rich nations promised to provide $100 billion in climate finance to developing countries.But this promise has only been partially respected and will expire in 2025.

“These sums reflect the crisis situation,” Urama said.“Investing in climate adaptation in the context of sustainable development is the best way to address the impacts of climate change.”

Fashion designers around the world use traditional techniques to create garments that don't waste fabric

Every year 92 million tons of textile waste are created.According to the United Nations, the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of carbon emissions while a 2021 World Economic Forum report he indicated fashion, together with its supply chain, as the world's third largest polluter.By 2030 is expected that global clothing consumption will rise to 102 million tonnes per year, up from the current 62 million tonnes.

But for some time now, designers from all over the world have been inspired by the production of traditional clothing to eliminate fabric waste.

One of them is 27-year-old Bhaavya Goenka.Growing up watching trucks full of discarded fabrics from her parents' garment factory in Jaipur, India, Goenka founded Iro Iro, a fashion brand and service that reclaims textile waste and uses it according to indigenous practices.“In our collective cultures there is awareness of fabrics and materials and I try to draw inspiration from them,” explains Goenka.In collaboration with design companies, Iro Iro collects their waste, breaks it down into smaller pieces and works with village artisans to weave it into new fabrics.”

However, to reduce waste, pollution and emissions generated by the fashion industry, mass producers such as Zara, H&M and Marks & Spencer cannot be ignored, explains Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem, associate researcher at Manchester Fashion Institute studying how cutting zero waste patterns can be applied to mass production.“It's not enough for high-end designers and those who make bespoke garments to practice zero-waste design techniques.The burden of reducing textile waste must fall on mass producers.”

Global climate strike:open letter to teachers in Italian schools

Teachers For Future Italy, a national network of teachers, educators, school managers and rectors, professors and researchers who adhere to the Teachers for the Future Manifesto, published on the occasion of the first global climate strike, they sent a letter to Italian school teachers to invite them to mobilize alongside students on the occasion of the global climate strike on September 23rd.

“The start of this school year takes on a particular meaning for us, because it comes after a long summer characterized by heat waves, drought, extreme events, which have made all Italians experience first-hand the heavy consequences of change climate.We therefore want to transform this dramatic context into an opportunity to involve students, colleagues and managers in both educational and operational activities that can represent an answer to the problem, at least as far as the world of schools is concerned", we read in the letter.

The network of teachers supports and supports students who are mobilizing to demand an effective fight against climate change and has developed a series of operational proposals, educational activities and concrete initiatives to fight climate change.

Preview image via World Economic Forum