Climate Change and Health

Climate change is a negative phenomenon with its attending impacts posing a huge threat to human security. These impacts include, among others, drought, famine, flooding, deforestation, desertification, cyclone, ocean acidity, disappearance of glaziers and antarctic ice. The health impacts include malaria, dengue fever, cholera, mal-nutrition, common cold, catarrh and other non-communicable diseases. These adverse impacts are global concerns which the United Nations is combating through its various agencies, programmes and funds.
All climate change induced health impacts are deadly, taking toll on global population, especially, in poor countries. All diseases due to climate change should receive equal attention from the U.N. Prioritizing one health impact leaves the other un-adequately tackled. ‘’A snake killed in the head is a dead snake, a snake killed in the tail is as deadly as death”.
Rather than prioritizing one of its health impacts, mitigating climate change through conventions, policies and sanctions should take the front burner.
As noted by the United State secretary of state, John Kelly, during an international conference on climate change in Vienna, Austria, 2016. He declared, climate change is as worse as terrorism.
Some climate-change-induced diseases are unique to particular region or continent while others are more prominent in some countries than the other. If and when a particular health impact of climate change is prioritized on the U.N agenda, this mean that the areas in which this prioritized disease is not prominent or existing but has other diseases as deadly and ravaging would be marginalized. In a diverse world of many countries, continents, races, colors and religions, this position would taint the impartiality and neutrality espoused by the United Nations.
Efforts by the United Nations and its agencies in combating climate change should be intensified and all its health impacts should enjoy equal priorities on the United Nations’ agenda. An un-prioritized climate-change-induced health impact would wreak an unimaginable havoc on poor populations and a bad image for the U.N.
Let’s kill the snake in the head and not prioritizing one above the others.