Climate threatsInaction on climate change has “jeopardized human life”: Report
A major new report into climate change shows that the human symptoms of climate change are unequivocal and that the delayed response to climate change over the past twenty-five years has jeopardized human life and livelihoods. The human symptoms of climate change are unequivocal and potentially irreversible – affecting the health of populations around the world today.
A major new report into climate change shows that the human symptoms of climate change are unequivocal and that the delayed response to climate change over the past twenty-five years has jeopardized human life and livelihoods.
The 2017 annual report by the Lancet Countdown tracks the relations between climate change and public health.
The Lancet Countdown is an international research collaboration, providing a global overview of the relationship between public health and climate change. Publishing its findings in The Lancet medical journal each year, the initiative aims to help inform an accelerated response to climate change.
Leading academics and technical experts from across twenty-four partner institutions around the globe have contributed analysis included in the 2017 report. The University of Sussex notes that partner organizations include the World Bank, World Health Organization, University College London, and the University of Sussex’s Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson and Dom Kniveton, based in the School of Global Studies.
“Our contribution with thematic working group 1 on Climate Change, Impacts, Exposure and Vulnerability mainly evolves around more comprehensive ways to measure and track disaster lethality,” says Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson. “We are in a way very fortunate to have spent plenty of time in the field, such as in Bangladesh and East and West Africa, talking to people who have faced environmental shocks through generations. This allows us to dig deeper to understand the processes and real-life stories beneath current health statistics.”
The 2017 report presents an assessment of the progress of the global response to climate change and associated health impacts across forty unique indicators from five thematic groups. The findings can be summarized in the following three key conclusions.
1. The human symptoms of climate change are unequivocal and potentially irreversible – affecting the health of populations around the world, today.
2. The delayed response to climate change over the past twenty-five years has jeopardized human life and livelihoods.
3. Although progress has been historically slow, the past five years have seen an accelerated response, and in 2017 momentum is building across a number of sectors; the direction of travel is set, with clear and unprecedented opportunities for public health.
— Read more in The 2017 Report of the Lancet Countdown (The Lancet, October 2017)
