2024-01-17 01:32:19
In a fascinating editorial recently published by BMC Public Health and 200 other health journals, the medical community called on members of the United Nations, health professionals and political leaders to recognize that global biodiversity loss and the climate emergency are intertwined.
To this end, the World Health Organization (WHO) was asked to declare the climate and indivisible nature crisis a global health emergency before the 77th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, in May 2024.
Only by considering the climate and biodiversity as parts of the same complex problem… can solutions be developed that prevent a lack of adaptation and maximize the beneficial results.”
Learning: The time has come to treat the climate and nature crisis as one indivisible global health emergency. Image credit: Sepp photography / Shutterstock.com
Climate crises invite further loss of biodiversity
The concept of planetary health recognizes that the natural world consists of an interdependent system of unfathomable complexity. Damage to one aspect of this system can destroy another.
As global temperatures rise, so does the frequency of forest fires, destroying plant life, leading to lower carbon sequestration, higher rates of soil erosion, and increased global warming. Due to the far-reaching consequences of these feedback loops, climate change is likely to contribute more to biodiversity loss than deforestation or other forms of land-use change.
Given the opportunity, natural systems are remarkably resilient. This is exemplified by the role of marine phytoplankton as a carbon sink and the rapid rate at which vegetation regenerates on deforested land. Indigenous practices for managing natural resources have often been sustainable and promoted regeneration and restoration, while historically unrecognized by immigrant populations.
This points to the challenges of restoring ecosystems. More specifically, actions to protect one system can help another, such as when land reclamation increases carbon storage capacity or works to its detriment, such as when non-native tree species capture carbon but destroy native forests.
An environmental crisis threatens human health
Both the climate emergency and the biodiversity crisis harm human health. Environmental degradation disrupts economic and social systems and deepens poverty around the world. Even if global warming can be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the effects could still be cataclysmic.
Lack of water, food, land and shelter increases conflict and migration. Public health has also been affected by the spread of pathogens, increased air pollution, unprecedented global temperatures and extreme weather events.
The incidence of water-borne diseases is increasing as pollution impairs water quality and renders many water sources unsafe for use. Environmental pollution and wildlife declines also threaten food security, as many communities depend on wild species of plants and fish for their nutrition.
As the 2019 virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic demonstrated, increasing pressure on the human population, urbanization, and shrinking wildlife habitats have increased the likelihood of pathogens, new diseases, and pandemics. At the same time, the burden of allergic, metabolic, neuropsychiatric, autoimmune, non-infectious and inflammatory diseases is also increasing.
Meanwhile, as Earth’s biodiversity dwindles, so does the likelihood of discovering potentially life-saving drugs that can be developed from undiscovered species.
These effects are not equally favorable. Instead, the most vulnerable communities often experience the brunt of the consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss, while the most privileged are protected. While inequality has driven the environmental crisis, climate change is also deepening social, economic and health inequalities.
Twin challenges must be met through joint efforts
Despite the interconnected nature of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, global initiatives to alleviate these problems have been largely separate. In fact, the research communities participating in the Conferences of the Parties (COP) on climate change are different from those contributing to the COP on biodiversity. However, there is a growing recognition that only by uniting can these enormous problems be addressed.
“Without nature, we have nothing.”
The 28th COP on climate change will be held in Dubai in 2024, while the 16th COP on biodiversity will soon be held in Turkey. Police officers have the potential to address pressing global issues; However, many previous commitments made at these meetings were not fulfilled. As promises are not kept, ecosystems are pushed further towards ‘tipping points’ after which they can no longer function.
By unifying efforts to address biodiversity loss and climate change, the authors hope that COP processes can be adapted and integrated. Before that, political leaders and citizens of the world must recognize that the environmental crisis is also a global health emergency.
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