Climate change affects human health in many different ways. One obvious one is high heat, since it could lead to heat related illnesses, such as heat exhaustion and heatstroke. This is especially true for people that are more vulnerable, such as older adults, children, and people with certain medical conditions. This is especially true for cities due to the urban heat island effect, which is where heat gets trapped in things like asphalt and concrete, making the city hotter. This increases the risk of heat related illnesses, especially in poorer areas that can not afford air conditioning.
Climate change can also spread infectious diseases. This is because the warmer temperatures expand the locations where bugs that carry diseases (mosquitoes, ticks, etc.), making it more dangerous. As surprising as this may sound, mosquitoes are the #1 cause of death from animals in terms of human deaths. The most common diseases carried by these bugs are malaria, dengue, and Lyme disease. Climate change is also leading to more flooding, which makes it easier for mosquitoes to breed.
Climate change is also ruining the air quality. This mainly affects respiratory health. Climate change causes more ozone to be formed at ground level, which is a component of smog, and smog can worsen respiratory conditions (COPD, asthma, etc.). Wildfires, which can be worsened and more common due to long-term droughts, also cause a lot of smoke to enter our atmosphere, which worsens the air quality for millions of people. If you are in the smoke, it can make it hard to breath, irritate your eyes, and worsen certain respiratory conditions.
Climate change also impacts people’s mental health. If people have to experience severe weather events (hurricanes, flooding, tornadoes, etc.), it can be so bad and lead to things like stress, anxiety, and PTSD, depending on how bad the event was on you. Climate change can also make the place you live unsafe due to things like wildfires, causing you to lose your home, which is obviously stressful. For some people, they experience things like this many times due to climate change, causing chronic stress. This is especially true for children and teenagers since their brain is still developing.
Climate change also increases water and food scarcity. Droughts cause it harder to obtain water and grow crops and many extreme weather events can kill crops (e.g. wildfires burning crops). These are just two examples, but there are many more. Sometimes there is still food, but the quality just isn’t as good in terms of taste and nutrients, which could lead to malnutrition. Flooding and extreme weather events can also lead to making the water supply unsafe to drink, and lack of water is very bad for human health. If you do drink the water that is unsafe to drink, you are at risk of getting things like cholera and diarrhea.
As you have learned, climate change can be terrible for human health in many ways beyond just heat-related illnesses. Right now it is not too bad, but it is just going to get worse and worse as time goes by.
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