Published on
updated on
Reading 2 min.
Global warming is causing more and more health problems around the world, including an increase in heat-related deaths, concludes a benchmark annual report published by the journal Lancet.
“Rapid climate change is causing people around the world to face unprecedented threats to their well-being, health and survival.“, summarizes this report, says Lancet Countdown, and produced each year by researchers from a large number of universities and agencies linked to the United Nations.
The authors insist that global warming not only represents a long-term threat, but is already causing widespread, sometimes fatal, health problems.
They point in particular to the increase in heat-related deaths, while heatwaves are becoming more and more frequent in temperate regions, like most European countries.
Among those over 65, heat-related mortality had more than doubled in 2023 compared to the average for the 1990s, underlines the report, citing other problems linked to high temperatures: difficulty sleeping, risks of stroke. hot during physical exercise…
The report also points out the risks of so-called “extreme” climatic events, for example heavy precipitation which can cause flooding or contaminate running water. Compared to the period 1961-1990, the years 2014-2023 saw the regions of the world exposed to this precipitation increase by more than half.
Above all, the researchers note that it is not enough to separately assess each of these risks – and many others also studied by the report -: “they likely have simultaneous and cascading effects…that disproportionately threaten people’s health and survival whenever global temperatures rise by a fraction of a degree“.
Noting the unprecedented level of CO2 emissions in 2023, the authors call into question the responsibility of States, as well as the gas and oil industry, accusing them of continuing to invest excessively in fossil fuels.
For example, the measures intended to compensate for the rise in energy prices are at issue, in a context where the latter have notably jumped in the wake of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
“If we don’t act now, the future looks very dangerous“, summarized to AFP the researcher Marina Romanello who coordinated the report. “Lost time is paid for in human lives.”