Climate change is expected to cause an estimated 250,000 additional deaths each year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress.
Climate change refers to long-term changes in temperature and weather patterns, and the effects of climate change include higher temperatures, changes in rainfall, increasing frequency or intensity of extreme events. in weather, and sea level rise. .
A team of researchers from the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), led by Ziad al-Khatib and Johan von Schreib, along with researchers Sani Yaya, from the University of Ottawa (Canada), and Maral Amirkhani and Shedrokh Ghimoud, from in Baha’i The Institute of Higher Education (Iran) studied the relationship between extreme weather and mortality as a function of global temperature and carbon dioxide emissions.
The research article, published recently in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports, covers the period from 1999 to 2018 and looks at the number of deaths from three types of extreme weather events (heat wave, cold wave, and extreme winter condition) in low, middle and high -income countries.
The researchers used data from the Catholic University of Leuven’s database of emergency events. They ranked countries ’income by GDP from the World Bank and also adopted data on carbon dioxide emission levels from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center to correlate GDP and carbon dioxide emissions in years of extreme weather conditions. in each country.
The results of the study show that the majority of cold snap-related deaths occurred in middle-income countries, followed by high-income countries.
The study also found that more deaths are likely to occur during heat waves than during cold weather or harsh winter weather, especially in high-income countries.
Finally, increased carbon dioxide emissions could increase the number of deaths during extreme weather.
It should be noted that such studies, which look at the relationship between extreme weather and health and sometimes mortality, are not reliably related to the seasons we live in, as estimated by the World Health Organization ( WHO) that in 2030 and in 2050 there will be approximately 250,000 an additional death per year due to climate change.
Therefore, knowing how and to what extent life and health are affected will be useful in dealing with an ever-changing world.
Source: Medical Express
Source: Arabic RT
