Climate Change and Global Health in the 21st Century: Evidence and Resilience

• Author: Edward Septimus,Otmar Kloiber,Arnauld Nicogossian,Bonnie Stabile
• Published date: 01 September 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.239
• Date: 01 September 2017

Editorial

Climate Change and Global Health in the 21st Century:

Evidence and Resilience

Arnauld Nicogossian, Bonnie Stabile , Otmar Kloiber, and Edward Septimus

Climate change and projected global warming have received much attention

and engendered some debate in the scientif‌ic, health, and policy communities in

the last two decades. Many discussions, primarily in United States, have focused

on economic and scientif‌ic evidence.

In 2016, the World Medical Association (WMA, 2016) issued a statement saying

that:

There is now persuasive evidence demonstrating the numerous health risks posed

by climate change, which threatens populations of both low and high-income

countries. These health effects include more frequent heatwaves, f‌looding and

extreme weather events. Less direct impacts also include worsening food security,

malnutrition and population displacement. Addressing climate change is also

considered to be an opportunity to improve global health in the 21st century due

to the signif‌icant health co-benef‌its of low-carbon solutions.

The World Medical Association (WMA) follows the United Nations climate

change negotiations so that the well-documented impact of climate change

on health, as well as the public health benef‌its of climate change mitigation

activities, are taken into consideration. Physicians advocate for making

health an inherent component of the climate change debate and for an

effectiveandambitiousimplementation of the Paris Agreement adopted in

December 2016.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that anthropogenic climate

change of the past 30 years has claimed over 150,000 lives annually (Patz,

Campbell-Lendrum, Holloway & Foley, 2005). Patz et al. (2005) carefully qualify

World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2017

280

doi: 10.1002/wmh3.239

#2017 Policy Studies Organization