The World Meteorological Organisation’s Petteri Taalas recently stated, “Things are getting worse,” since the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are anticipated to reach a new peak in 2019.
The world’s many areas will see varying degrees of impact, some more so than others. However, some effects are likely to change everyone’s life, so here is some devastating impact of climate change which you should be worried about.
Impact of climate change on water quality
Water supplies may get contaminated due to severe storms and copious amounts of precipitation. In urban areas, runoff can overflow sewage systems and pick up pollutants from the streets, allowing untreated sewage into drinking water sources. In addition, animal manure, pesticides, and chemical fertilisers are transported by runoff in rural regions and may end up in drinking or recreational waters.
Additionally to causing cholera, Legionnaires’ disease, and diarrhoea, contaminated drinking water can also infect the eyes, ears, and skin. In addition, sea level rise could make it possible for saltwater to get into drinking water supplies in some low-lying coastal locations. And as water supplies decline in drought-stricken places, toxins concentrate there.
More health risks
Warmer weather lengthens the pollen season and degrades the air quality, both of which can increase the frequency of allergy and asthma attacks. The main cause of smog, ground-level ozone, which rises with the temperature, can also worsen asthma and other chronic lung disorders by impairing lung function and causing coughing, chest pain, and tightness as an impact of climate change. In addition, wet houses following flooding or storms may encourage mould growth, which has been connected to allergies and other lung conditions.
More people will experience heat cramps, heat exhaustion, hyperthermia (high body temperature), and heat stroke when temperatures rise because the body’s capacity to regulate its temperature is hampered by days that are excessively hot for the season.
Extreme weather
Storms, floods, heat waves, and droughts are just a few disasters that worsen due to rising temperatures. An atmosphere that can contain, discharge, and gather more water results from warmer temperatures. This alters weather patterns so that wet areas get wetted and dry ones get drier. Long dry spells have effects beyond just burnt grass. Conditions in drought put people’s access to clean water at risk, fuel wildfires that get out of control and cause extreme heat events, dust storms, and flash flooding in the United States.
Lack of water is a primary cause of death and serious disease in other parts of the world and is a factor in crop failure. On the other hand, larger rains can cause streams, rivers, and lakes to overflow, endangering people’s lives and property, contaminating water supplies, causing spills of hazardous materials, and encouraging the growth of mildew and filthy air.
More deaths
According to modern scientists, the greatest threat to world health in the twenty-first century is climate change’s impact. It is a threat that affects all of us, directly and indirectly, with particular emphasis on minorities, low-income areas, children, and the elderly. As temperatures increase or rise, so do the frequency of illnesses, ER visits, and fatalities. Hundreds of people die yearly because of heat-related causes, both direct and indirect consequences of heat-exacerbated, fatal illnesses, including heat exhaustion, heatstroke, and cardiovascular and kidney conditions. More Americans die from excessive heat yearly than from hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and lightning combined.
So these were some of the devastating impacts of climate change which you should be worried about, but the good news is it’s not too late as we come up with new solutions every day. So take the first step now and implement the solutions for climate change today.
Sources:
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/heat-wave
- https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/contamination.html
