We often talk about the environment like it’s something completely separate from ourselves and our daily lives. We’re so used to the environments we live in—our homes, our cities, the greenery (or lack thereof) outside our front doors—that we don’t often see it for what it is: something we all depend on for our health, our livelihoods, and our overall wellbeing as people.
We can talk about the deforestation of rainforests in South America, the melting ice caps at the poles, and the well-documented harms of pollution and deteriorating infrastructure. We can talk about cancer and asthma, depression, and childhood hunger, but so often these things can feel far away and unrelated. And, sure, maybe you do live thousands of miles from the Amazon. But the effects of that deforestation are already at your front door, whether you realize it or not. It’s affecting the air we breathe, the quality of our food, and even our mental health. And it’s happening to all of us; to our neighbors both near and far.
It’s time that we reframe how we think about the environment in relationship to ourselves and our communities. The health and wellbeing of our environment isn’t just a climate change issue, it’s a human health issue. We need to do a better job of talking about it that way.
“Climate change can affect human health by changing the severity, duration, or frequency of health problems and by creating unprecedented or unanticipated health problems or health threats in places or populations where they have not previously occurred.”
Health and Environmental Trends – Now & Then
An estimated 24% of all global deaths can be attributed to the environment and as climate change worsens, so will this number.
Currently, tens of millions of people around the world are experiencing the negative impacts of drought. This includes 40 million people in Southern Africa, 40% of the United States, and 17% of Europe. Prolonged heat waves in Europe have led to tens of thousands of deaths over the past five years. Pollution in both rural and urban settings has been linked to lung disease, heart disease, and increased chronic illness in children such as asthma.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by 2030, we will see a global increase of at least 250,000 deaths per year due to climate-related diseases and stressors (e.g., extreme heat, malaria, malnutrition). Food insecurity, food deserts, and malnutrition will become more frequent, as will foodborne illnesses. Excess heat and precipitation will lead to the population increase and spread of organisms (i.e., vectors) that carry disease, such as mosquitoes, spreading these areas into previously unaffected regions. Massive swaths of the human population will be facing problems of unclean water and unclean air due to pollution.
“By 2050, climate change is likely to cause an additional 14.5 million deaths and $12.5 trillion in economic losses worldwide, according to a new World Economic Forum report on the impact of global warming on health.”
Today, at least 3.3 billion people (nearly half the global population!) lives on or near the coast in areas considered highly vulnerable to climate change. This includes eight out of ten of the world’s largest cities. With an estimated increase in catastrophic climate-related disasters (including high-intensity tropical storms), experts believe that by 2050, there could be more than 1.2 billion climate refugees around the world.
Environmental Justice, Health, and Healthcare
One of the core principles of environmental justice is the just treatment and inclusion of all people when it comes to decision making about the environment and human health. Currently, countries throughout the Global South are experiencing the negative human health impacts of climate change at a much more severe rate than those in the Global North, despite the Global North being responsible for 92% of excess carbon emissions.
Regions in Africa (the entire continent only produces about 3% of global carbon emissions) and southern portions of Asia are particularly susceptible due to a lack of access to critical resources, infrastructure needs, a lack of necessary medical equipment, and economies that cannot support rapid adaptation to a changing climate and the changing weather patterns and challenges that come with it. The millions of people who live in these regions should not be bearing the brunt of climate change’s impacts—especially when it comes to health and healthcare.
But the countries in these regions are not alone. Communities all over the world, particularly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities, are experiencing outsized health burdens because of pollution, waste, food insecurity, and so much more. And it comes at a steep human and financial cost.
“Over 930 million people – around 12% of the world’s population – spend at least 10% of their household budget to pay for health care. With the poorest people largely uninsured, health shocks and stresses already currently push around 100 million people into poverty every year, with the impacts of climate change worsening this trend.”
What Climate Change Means for the Future of Healthcare
According to the World Economic Forum, healthcare systems are expected to see an added burden of more than $1 trillion due to climate-related ailments. And who will pay for this? Citizens. All of us. And it doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll be receiving better care, either.
Throughout North, Central, and South America, 67% of all healthcare facilities are in geographical regions that are susceptible to some kind of disaster. This may be flooding, wildfires, or simply coastal erosion brought on by rising sea levels. This means that healthcare access is at serious risk for hundreds of millions of people.
“The climate crisis threatens to undo the last 50 years of progress in development, global health and poverty reduction, and to further widen existing health inequalities between and within populations.”
And while death (mortality) is the worst possible outcome when considering how climate change affects our health, it’s not the only one worth mentioning. In fact, while experts project that 21% of the environment’s health impacts will be attributed to mortality, 79% will be attributed to illnesses (often chronic) that billions of people will have to live with. This is referred to as morbidity. This goes to show that climate change has lasting effects—ones that will impact entire generations, likely for the whole of their lives.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Because, while a degraded environment can have negative impacts on our health, nature in general can actually work wonders!
The Incredible Benefits of the Environment on Human Health
Have you ever taken a walk in nature and immediately felt better? Have you taken a moment to observe a squirrel cracking open an acorn or stopped to admire a determined flower growing through the crack in a sidewalk? If you left that experience feeling rejuvenated, you’re not alone. For decades, scientists have been studying the benefits of nature on our physical, mental, emotional, and cognitive health, and there are plenty of studies to show that spending time in nature makes a huge positive difference. Spending time in nature has shown positive trends in stress reduction, improvements with mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression, and improved memory. In fact, people who live surrounded by nature have higher life expectancies due to the decrease in health risks from waste and pollution.
“In a recent study, psychiatric unit researchers found that being in nature reduced feelings of isolation, promoted calm, and lifted mood among patients.”
The United Nation’s Environment Programme (UNEP) signed a collaborative agreement in 2022 called One Health. The four partnering organizations—Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and the World Health Organization (WHO)—agreed to improve cooperation and prioritize the interconnected health and wellbeing of ecosystems, animals, and humans as they are all intrinsically interconnected. There is no separating one from the others.
In the end, environmental health is very much a human health issue, and we are beginning to see this acknowledgement far more broadly on a global scale. However, it can’t end here. We must continue to push for the health and human benefits of a healthy environment and stand in the way of those efforts that seek to prioritize profit over people. Remember, we require a healthy environment to survive and thrive.
