2024-10-30 00:00:00
Dengue fever patients receive treatment in the admission section of Mugda General Hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, September 11, 2024. MAMUNUR RASHID/NURPHOTO VIA AFP
Heat, torrential rains, drought: global warming has multiple impacts on human health, which the vast panel of Lancet Countdown – 122 experts from 57 academic institutions, in partnership with UN agencies – have been documenting for nine years. The 2024 annual report, published Wednesday October 30 in the medical journal The Lancetalert on the increase in health risks linked to climate change.
Among the sixty indicators selected, the most evocative is the increase in heat-related mortality, particularly among older populations, but also among very young children, people suffering from chronic illnesses and precarious urban populations. , which are among the most exposed to heat. According to the report, the number of people over 65 who died from high temperatures in 2023 increased by 167% compared to the 1990s, or 102 percentage points more than the 65% expected in the absence of an increase. of temperature, that is to say based only on the aging of the world population.
But these harmful consequences do not only concern the most vulnerable. Experts highlight that in 2023 heat exposure put people practicing outdoor physical activity at risk, since they were exposed to heat stress for 27.7% more hours than in average in the 1990s. This stress continues at night; we observe a record loss of 6% of hours of sleep in 2023 compared to the average for the period 1986-2005.
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“We see that rising temperatures have led to a record loss of 512 billion potential work hours in 2023, with the vast majority of these losses occurring in the agricultural sector”added Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown and researcher at University College London, presenting the report on Thursday October 24. This translated into a potential loss of revenue amounting to $835 billion, with countries with low Human Development Index bearing the majority of this damage (–7.6% of their GDP).
Extreme precipitation and drought
New indicators add to this general picture, notably extreme precipitation caused by climate change. More than 60% of the land surface would have recorded an increase in the number of days of very heavy rain between the period from 1961 to 1990 and that from 2014 to 2024. At the same time, 48% of these territories were affected by at least one months of extreme drought in 2023. North Africa, southern Africa and South America are particularly affected.
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