Lancet
The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The “window” to meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement “is closing rapidly”, he warns the latest report of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on the "emissions gap" compared to the objectives to keep the increase in temperatures within 1.5°C of the pre-industrial era. Despite ambitious commitments, progress has been "limited" in the year since the last United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow.The drop in emissions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic proved to be "short-lived". In 2021 CO2 emissions have returned to 2019 levels and global coal emissions have exceeded 2019 levels.While emissions of methane and nitrous oxide have remained relatively stable, emissions of fluorinated gases continue to grow. While there has been some progress in reducing the growth rate of emissions, global greenhouse gas emi...
Leer in español There are questions that worry me profoundly as a population- and environmental-health scientist. Will we have enough food for a growing global population? How will we take care of more people in the next pandemic? What will heat do to millions with hypertension? Will countries wage water wars because of increasing droughts? These risks all have three things in common: health, climate change and a growing population that the United Nations determined passed 8 billion people in November 2022 – double the population of just 48 years ago. In my 40-year career, first working in the Amazon rainforest and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and then in academia, I have encountered many public health threats, but none so intransigent and pervasive as climate change. Of the multitude of climate-related adverse health effects, the following four represent the greatest public health concerns for a growing population. Infectious disease...