Heat, air pollution, disease: How climate change affects health

This photograph taken on November 6, 2024, show boats navigating the Maroni river affected by droughts which hinder navigation, near the town of Apatou, in French Guiana. (AFP/File)
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Updated 09 November 2024
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Heat, air pollution, disease: How climate change affects health

  • The latest round of UN climate summit begin next week during what is expected to be the hottest year in recorded history
  • The COP29 talks will be held in Azerbaijan as the world continues to emit increasing levels of planet-heating fossil fuels

PARIS: Record-breaking heat, extreme weather events, air pollution and the spread of infectious disease: climate change poses an already vast yet rising threat to the health of humans around the world, experts warn.
The latest round of UN climate talks begin next week during what is expected to be the hottest year in recorded history — and in the shadow of climate skeptic Donald Trump’s re-election as US president.
The COP29 negotiations will be held in Azerbaijan as the world continues to emit increasing levels of planet-heating fossil fuels, even as many nations have been lashed by devastating floods, droughts, heatwaves and storms.




Volunteers use poles and canes to search for victims in a paddy field in the Albufera national park near Catarroja, following devastating flooding in the region of Valencia, eastern Spain, on November 9, 2024. (AFP)

“Climate change is making us sick, and urgent action is a matter of life and death,” the World Health Organization warned this week.
Here are some of the ways that global warming affects health.
The EU’s climate monitor said this week that 2024 is “virtually certain” to surpass last year to become the hottest year in recorded history. It is also expected to be the first year that is more than 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.
Out of 15 ways that climate change impacts health being tracked by experts as part of The Lancet Countdown, 10 have now “reached concerning new records,” according to the group’s latest report.
The number of over-65s who died from heat has risen by 167 percent since the 1990s, just one of the recent all-time highs, the report said.
Extreme heat leads to numerous health risks such as kidney disorders, strokes, adverse pregnancy outcomes, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, organ failure and ultimately death.




This photograph taken on November 6, 2024, shows Ryan Dikan navigating his piraga past exposed portions of the rocky riverbed as droughts affect the Maroni river level, hindering navigation, near the town of Apatou, in French Guiana. (AFP/File)

Jeni Miller, executive director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, said “this year has underlined the growing impacts of a warming climate on people’s health and wellbeing.”
She pointed to extreme heat leading to 700 deaths and more than 40,000 cases of heat stroke in India, “climate-exacerbated” rains causing a dam to collapse in Nigeria killing 320, and 48 out of 50 US states “experiencing moderate or worse drought.”
Spain is meanwhile still recovering from its deadliest floods in a generation, while parts of the United States and Cuba are picking up the pieces after recent hurricanes.
Droughts, floods and other extreme weather events are also expected to hit global crops, leading to rising hunger in many regions.
Almost all — 99 percent — of the world’s population breathes air that exceeds the World Health Organization’s guidelines for air pollution.
This pollution has been found to increase the risk of respiratory diseases, strokes, heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes and other health problems, posing a threat that has been compared to tobacco.
Almost seven million premature deaths a year are linked to air pollution, according to the WHO.




People walk along a street amid smog in Lahore on November 2, 2024. (AFP/File)

Just last week, Pakistan’s second-biggest city Lahore recorded air pollution at 40 times the level deemed acceptable by the WHO.
In better news, the Lancet Countdown report found that deaths from fossil fuel-related air pollution fell by nearly seven percent from 2016 to 2021, mainly due to efforts to reduce pollution from burning coal.
The changing climate means that mosquitoes, birds and mammals will roam beyond their previous habitats, raising the threat that they could spread infectious diseases with them.
Dengue, chikungunya, Zika, West Nile virus and malaria are all mosquito-borne diseases that could spread wider in a warming world.
The transmission risk of one dengue-spreading mosquito has risen by 43 percent over the last 60 years, according to the Lancet Countdown. A new global record of over five million dengue cases was recorded last year.
Storms and floods create stagnant water that are breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and also increase the risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhea.


EU to propose more flexible climate goal in July, sources say

Updated 5 sec ago
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EU to propose more flexible climate goal in July, sources say

  • The proposal will set an EU goal to cut net greenhouse gas emissions 90 percent by 2040, compared with 1990 levels, the diplomats saiD
BRUSSELS: The European Commission will propose a new EU climate target in July that includes flexibilities for how countries meet it, as Brussels attempts to fend off mounting criticism of Europe’s environmental aims, EU diplomats told Reuters.
The European Union’s climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, confirmed plans to present an EU climate target for 2040 on July 2, during a meeting with EU countries’ representatives on Wednesday, diplomats familiar with the closed-door talks told Reuters.
The proposal will set an EU goal to cut net greenhouse gas emissions 90 percent by 2040, compared with 1990 levels, the diplomats said. However, the EU executive plans to add flexibilities to that target, which could reduce what it demands from domestic industries.
The flexibilities include setting an emissions-cutting target for domestic industries that is lower than 90 percent and letting countries buy international carbon credits to make up the rest, to reach 90 percent, the diplomats said.
A European Commission spokesperson declined to comment on the plans.
The Commission has promised not to weaken Europe’s ambitious climate aims, despite mounting criticism from governments and lawmakers concerned about the cost for European businesses, which are struggling with high energy prices and looming US tariffs.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent. The Commission has delayed its 2040 climate proposal for months, and has weakened other green laws in recent months to try to calm the political pushback.
EU countries are split over the 2040 goal, which they and EU lawmakers must approve. Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark are among those backing a 90 percent emissions cut. Opponents include Italy and the Czech Republic.
Germany has backed a 90 percent target if countries can use international carbon credits to meet three percentage points of the goal.
The Commission is also considering softening requirements for countries to cut emissions in specific sectors — giving them more choice over which industries do the heavy lifting to meet the goal, the diplomats said.
The 2040 goal will aim to keep EU countries on track between their 2030 emissions target — which they are nearly on track to meet — and the EU’s aim to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Death toll in central Nigeria floods rises to 36: rescuers

Updated 23 min 39 sec ago
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Death toll in central Nigeria floods rises to 36: rescuers

KANO: The death toll in central Nigeria flash floods has risen to 36 after rescuers recovered more bodies, an emergency services spokesman told AFP Friday.
Flooding after torrential rains late on Wednesday washed away more than 50 homes in the city of Mokwa in central Niger state, drowning residents with many missing, according to the Niger state emergency management agency (SEMA).
“As at this morning, 11 more bodies were recovered in addition to the 25 found earlier, which brings the number of fatalities to 36 so far,” Ibrahim Audu Husseini, SEMA spokesman said.
Teams of rescuers continued to search for missing residents into Friday.
“We expect the toll to rise considerably because there are different rescuers at different locations,” Husseini said.
Nigeria’s rainy season, which usually lasts six months, is just getting started for the year. Scientists warn that climate change is already fueling more extreme weather patterns.
Flooding, usually caused by heavy rains and poor infrastructure, wreaks havoc every year, killing hundreds of people across the west African country.
In Nigeria, the floods are exacerbated by inadequate drainage, the construction of homes on waterways, and the dumping of waste in drains and water channels.
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency had warned of possible flash floods in 15 of Nigeria’s 36 states, including Niger state, between Wednesday and Friday.
In 2024, more than 1,200 people were killed and 1.2 million displaced in at least 31 out of Nigeria’s 36 states, making it one of the country’s worst floods in decades, according to the National Emergency Management Agency.


New Zealand defense minister pledges more deployments, co-operation

Updated 30 May 2025
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New Zealand defense minister pledges more deployments, co-operation

  • Judith Collins raises the prospect of welcoming increased warship visits to the country, deepening joint training and other cooperative efforts

SINGAPORE: New Zealand is seeking to expand Asia-Pacific military deployments in its quest to show it was now “pulling our weight” with increased spending on its armed forces, the South Pacific nation’s defense minister said in Singapore on Friday.

Defense minister Judith Collins raised the prospect of welcoming increased warship visits to the country, deepening joint training and other cooperative efforts with its traditional defense partners including ally Australia, the United States, Singapore, Japan, Britain and the Philippines.

“So we’re open for business, we’re back in the world and we’re pulling our weight,” Collins said on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue defense meeting in Singapore.

The New Zealand government announced in April that it would boost defense spending by NZ$9 billion ($5 billion) over the next four years, with the aim of nearly doubling spending to 2 percent as a share of gross domestic product in the next eight years amid growing international tensions.

The new spending is a significant boost to the defense budget of just under NZ$5 billion in 2024/25, and follows its first national security review in 2023.

The review called for more military spending and stronger ties with Indo-Pacific nations to tackle issues of climate change and strategic competition between the West, and China and Russia.

The USS Blue Ridge, the command ship of the US Pacific Fleet, visited Wellington earlier this month and further visits from partners could be expected, Collins said. The ship was just the third US warship to visit in 40 years.

When asked about Chinese concerns at New Zealand’s more assertive military posture, she said Beijing realized Wellington had “actually got a spine,” but “I don’t think China stays awake at night worrying about us.”

“I don’t think we’re any threat to China, or anyone else really,” Collins said, describing relations with China, an important trading partner, as “very mature.”

Regional military attaches and analysts say that after years of relative neglect, New Zealand still had to improve its ability to sustainably project power given its small, aging navy and air force but supporting its traditional relationships were key.

Nuclear-free since the 1980s, New Zealand maintains an independent foreign policy but remains part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network with the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada.

Deployments of its four new Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft are being closely watched, given how they can help other countries plug gaps in the hunt for Chinese submarines, analysts say.

Collins said New Zealand and Australian pilots now had the ability to fly each other’s P-8 and transport planes — a sign of growing “interoperability” in action.

Collins said the P-8s had already flown up toward Canada and she expected further patrols in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. “I think you’ll see quite a lot of that,” she said. “We go everywhere. Everywhere where we’re wanted we go, if we can.”


Ukraine, Russia ‘want ceasefire,’ Turkiye FM says en route to Kyiv

Updated 30 May 2025
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Ukraine, Russia ‘want ceasefire,’ Turkiye FM says en route to Kyiv

  • Hakan Fidan: ‘I observe that the issue is beginning to take a more optimistic turn as negotiations start’

ANKARA: Russia and Ukraine both want a ceasefire to halt three years of war, Turkiye’s top diplomat said on Friday as he headed to Kyiv after holding talks in Moscow.

“I observe that the issue is beginning to take a more optimistic turn as negotiations start. Both parties want a ceasefire. No one says they don’t want it,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on the train taking him to Kyiv, reported news agency Anadolu.


Half the world faced an extra month of extreme heat due to climate change: study

Updated 30 May 2025
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Half the world faced an extra month of extreme heat due to climate change: study

  • About 49 percent of the global population experienced at least 30 more days of extreme heat according to a study done by scientists at the World Weather Attribution, Climate Central, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center

WASHINGTON: Half the global population endured an additional month of extreme heat over the past year because of manmade climate change, a new study found Friday.
The findings underscore how the continued burning of fossil fuels is harming health and well-being on every continent, with the effects especially under-recognized in developing countries, the authors said.
“With every barrel of oil burned, every ton of carbon dioxide released, and every fraction of a degree of warming, heat waves will affect more people,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and co-author of the report.
The analysis — conducted by scientists at World Weather Attribution, Climate Central, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center — was released ahead of global Heat Action Day on June 2, which this year spotlights the dangers of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
To assess the influence of global warming, researchers analyzed the period from May 1, 2024 to May 1, 2025.
They defined “extreme heat days” as those hotter than 90 percent of temperatures recorded at a given location between 1991 and 2020.
Using a peer-reviewed modeling approach, they then compared the number of such days to a simulated world without human-caused warming.
The results were stark: roughly four billion people — 49 percent of the global population — experienced at least 30 more days of extreme heat than they would have otherwise.
The team identified 67 extreme heat events during the year and found the fingerprint of climate change on all of them.
The Caribbean island of Aruba was the worst affected, recording 187 extreme heat days — 45 more than expected in a world without climate change.
The study follows a year of unprecedented global temperatures. 2024 was the hottest year on record, surpassing 2023, while January 2025 marked the hottest January ever.
On a five-year average, global temperatures are now 1.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — and in 2024 alone, they exceeded 1.5C, the symbolic ceiling set by the Paris climate accord.
The report also highlights a critical lack of data on heat-related health impacts in lower-income regions.
While Europe recorded more than 61,000 heat-related deaths in the summer of 2022, comparable figures are sparse elsewhere, with many heat-related fatalities mizattributed to underlying conditions such as heart or lung disease.
The authors emphasized the need for early warning systems, public education, and heat action plans tailored to cities.
Better building design — including shading and ventilation — and behavioral adjustments like avoiding strenuous activity during peak heat are also essential.
Still, adaptation alone will not be enough. The only way to halt the rising severity and frequency of extreme heat, the authors warned, is to rapidly phase out fossil fuels.