Climate Change Is Our Biggest Health Risk

Al-Ittihad, UAE, October 15

Just a few days after the Nobel Prize committee announced that three scientists had won the prize in the field of physics for their efforts to understand the Earth’s climate, the World Health Organization announced that projected climate changes would constitute the greatest health threat to humankind in the near future. On the physics front, the research of the three scientists resulted in the development of computer systems that can simulate the planet’s climate, and predict the consequences that will result from these changes in the future. This is considered a very important scientific development due to the extreme difficulty in accurately quantifying changes of highly complex physical systems, and the results of those changes. Thanks to their research, it has become possible to develop computer programs that can predict these changes and their results more accurately, especially the effects of greenhouse gases on global warming. Meanwhile, in its special report issued last week, the World Health Organization sounded the alarm, declaring that climate change would pose the greatest health threat to human health in the near future, calling on world governments to take the necessary measures to combat this disaster. The report was supported and endorsed by professional groups and organizations working in the field of health care, representing 45 million medical personnel around the world, including doctors, nurses and paramedical professionals. Some compare the current situation to the warnings that organizations and bodies working in the field of international health have been issuing for several years regarding infectious diseases, which fell on deaf ears until the outbreak of COVID-19. One can only hope that we will be more prepared to deal with global warming than we have been with the pandemic, which left behind a devastating impact and altered virtually all aspects of contemporary human life. – Akmal Abd Al-Hakim (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)